Tragoedia
by dreamsofyesterday1
Summary: Part 25 of the Robyn series. Torn by the results of her paternity test and the betrayal by one of her closest friends, Robyn spirals out of control. Can anyone save her or has too much damage already been done?
1. Chapter 1

Tragoedia

Part twenty-five of the Robyn series

Everyone in the audience jumped up from their seats as their host slid down the fireman's pole to the far left of the stage, cheering his name as he shook the hands of people reaching out for him in the first three rows. Their fists punched the air as they repeated his name over and over again and they cheered louder as he walked amongst them.

"Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!"

On Television screens everywhere the tag line for the show flashed up, 'My mother is a bitch and I f****** hate her!'

Waving at his fans and glowing under the light of their adoration, Jerry Springer took up his microphone and faced the cameras. The audience quieted as he began his introduction to the show.

"Thank you and welcome to the show! Tonight we have a very special guest, she says her mother is a bitch and she hates her. We all hate her too, everyone welcome Robyn to the show!"

The audience cheered and clapped as they turned their attention from Jerry Springer to the woman that sat on a chair centre stage, sitting nervously with her legs crossed and her hands folded in her lap.

Jerry Springer smiled as he approached the woman on stage, "Welcome to the show Robyn! It's good to see you! So what's the story here?"

"Well as most people probably know but for those that don't or don't know who I am, my mother is the prolific serial killer Lily."

Robyn paused as the audience booed and hissed at the name, several people shouted insults at the woman the name belonged to.

At Jerry's nod, Robyn continued speaking. "Basically she's an evil psycho bitch and I hate her. Ever since I was born she's basically gone out of her way to ruin my life. She's tried killing me and killing members of my family. She pretended to be someone else by dressing up like them and wearing a mask so she looked like them and caused trouble. She's slept with that many men that she didn't know who my father was and for her own benefit she manipulated the man I grew up thinking was my dad into having a DNA test that came back negative."

"Oh dear," Jerry sympathised, "Have you ever told her how you feel? Because if you haven't she's here right now. Come on out Lily!"

The whole audience stood up and booed louder than before as they threw their hatred at the woman that glared mockingly at them as she emerged from backstage. She baited them as she lifted up her top and flashed her breasts at them. She dropped her top as one of the bouncers threw her some 'Jerry beads', she caught them and cheered herself as she put them round her neck.

Above the noise, someone yelled 'get on the pole!' Lily heard them and sauntered over to the fireman's pole. She gyrated round it, ducking down with her back against it as she grinded on it. Jumping up in the air she spun round the pole, her svelte movements appealing sexually to many of the men still booing her.

Lily smiled as she left the pole and took a deep bow. When she came up she walked over and plonked herself down in a chair that stood next to Robyn. Flipping her hair she looked at her daughter and graced her with a menacing smile before raising her dark blue eyes to look at her host.

"Hi Jerry," She said in a tone full of sexiness that made Jerry Springer sweat a bit.

Robyn rolled her eyes as she detected her mother turning on her sex appeal to maximum and almost humping the talk show host with her eyes.

"Slut!" Robyn muttered under her breath.

Lily didn't miss what Robyn said and jumped from her chair, rounding on Robyn. "What did you call me?"

"I called you a slut!" Robyn hissed, remaining seated. "You're a dirty, nasty, no good, washed up slut!"

The audience jumped up from their seats as Lily grabbed Robyn, her fingernails digging into her daughter's cheeks, pulling her from her chair. They punched their fists in the air and cried the name of their host as the two women tangled themselves up into a full blown cat fight, grabbing at each other's hair and twisting it as they tried to kick out at each other. When their hands weren't trying to pull the hair from the other's head they were exchanging slaps and punches.

"STEVE!" The audience roared as Steve Wilkos, U.S Marine and police officer as well as Jerry Springer's foremost security guard raced onto the stage to try and break up the fight.

Jerry Springer stood off to the side and shrugged at his audience as the fight continued. Eventually his security guards were able to separate the fighting women who were dragged to opposite ends of the stage, chests heaving with their exertion.

"Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!" The audience yelled as Jerry mounted the stage once more.

Jerry waved again and motioned for his audience to resume their seats, "Wow that was intense!" He chuckled.

Lily curled back her top lip as she glared at one of the security men holding her, "Oh there's more where that came from!"

Several members of the audience screamed as Lily tore her arm from the grip of the security guards and grabbed hold of Todd Schultz, Jerry's right hand handyman. She threw him to the ground and kicked him in the head before breaking herself free from the other security guard and throwing the prone Todd into the audience.

As Lily came racing towards her, Robyn broke free from Steve Wilkos and jumped high into the air, flipping over Lily and landing on her feet behind the woman. She grabbed the chair she had been sitting in and swung it round, feeling it connect with her mother.

Lily wrenched the chair from Robyn's hands as she kicked her daughter hard in the stomach. Robyn bent double, badly winded and barely managed to roll out of the way as the chair was thrown down. It broke apart as it impacted with the stage.

Still winded, Robyn couldn't defend herself as Lily grasped hold of one of the legs that had broken off of the chair and swung it at her head. Everything went black and silent as the wood connected with her temple at high speed.


	2. Chapter 2

Robyn raised a hand to her head as she sat up. She opened her eyes slowly as she tried to get them to adjust to the light. Hearing a grown beside her she fumbled for the name of the person she thought had made it.

"Todd?" She said at last.

Kit rolled onto his back, his eyes wide open, "Who's Todd?"

Realising that she was in a strange bed, Robyn looked down at her fiancé. "When did I get here? When did you get here?"

"Some time this morning, we came back together. So who's Todd?"

"Todd, you know, Todd Schultz. From the Jerry Springer show, Lily grabbed him and kicked him in the head. We'd been fighting, she knocked me out. What did she do to Jerry?"

Kit burst out laughing as he finally made sense of what Robyn was saying. She was looking at him strangely and he calmed himself down.

"I think you need to stay off the Whisky, Robs. It does funny things to your head. That must have been some dream!" Kit exclaimed but quieted when Robyn still looked at him as though she were totally lost, "You really don't remember do you?"

Robyn shook her head gently, mindful of her headache. "Remember what? I'm sure I was there though, on the Jerry Springer show. It seemed so real."

"We went out last night, in Greentown. We went to that new nightclub they've opened there, Groucho's. Tobias and Salonen went with us and they watched as me and you danced and had a good time. You were really putting them down last night, I think I was too. You're a bad influence on me."

"Me a bad influence on you? I was a good girl before I met you." Robyn replied before noticing Kit's bruised knuckles on both hands, "What happened there?"

Kit raised his hands so he could look at them from where he was still laying, "Some guy was really getting heavy on you, flirting with you and the minute I turned my back he wrote his phone number on your tits."

"He didn't, did he? Not that I remember anything." Robyn said before she looked down and saw smudged marker pen smeared across her chest. "I don't believe it!"

"Neither did I. I turned round and belted him one, or at least tried. My aim was a little off and I think I hit Tobias instead so he'll have a fat lip this morning. I threw another punch and got him that time. The bouncers came into the fight when he went to punch me back and threw us all out. Salonen knocked your phantom tit tagger out and they brought us back here. I can't believe you don't remember."

"Where is here?"

Kit sat up and realised that he and Robyn were top and tail in the bed. He smiled and gestured their situation, she realised as well and laid back down.

Closing her eyes she smiled, "Now I remember that part. We asked Kathleen if we could stay overnight the other day when we knew we were coming here. I take it we must have fallen asleep downstairs."

"Yeah and muscled boy blue tucked us up in bed. I'm not sure what the amount you had to drink did to you but I know what it's done to me."

Robyn felt the bed shift slightly as he reached out under the duvet and clasped her hand in his. He was giggling softly as he led her hand to the place between his legs, her searching fingers brushing its hardness.

The couple was interrupted by hand knocking loudly on the door and a muffled voice saying something about breakfast. Sitting up they looked at each other and moaned as they got out of bed.

Muscled boy blue had muscled in on their fun once again.

Kit grabbed Robyn's arm before she pulled open the door, "Are you sure he's not psychic?" he whispered, mirth in his tone.

Robyn nodded as she opened the door a crack and peered through it. Sportacus had already headed back downstairs. She knew he'd be up again soon though and would carry them down if he had to. Kit knew this as well and he winked at Robyn as he thought of a marvellous way to wind up his favourite target.

Tobias turned his head towards the direction of the stairs, an ice pack held to his lip as he heard the sound of footsteps on the landing and the squeaking of the stairs as someone climbed down. He turned back to nod a thank you to Kathleen who had placed a hot cup of tea down on the table in front of him.

He managed to avoid the sight that Kathleen got an eyeful of.

Kathleen squealed with laughter as she covered her eyes and turned away quickly, the noise made Sportacus turn around from his occupation preparing breakfast for everyone and he dropped the butter knife in his hands with shock.


	3. Chapter 3

"Morning everybody!" Kit smiled as he strode into the kitchen as naked as the day he'd been born and still evidently showing the effects of his alcohol consumption the night before.

Tobias went to return the greeting but burst out laughing; spraying the tea he'd just taken a sip of everywhere while Salonen almost choked on his. Robyn could be heard laughing from the stairs where she'd lost the ability to walk any further when she'd registered that Kit had been sighted.

Kit seemed oblivious to his nudity and began to bend and stretch, giving Tobias a good view of something he hadn't ever expected to lay eyes on. If anything else had been in Sportacus' hands he would have dropped that as well.

"What's the matter Sporty? Don't you always say it's good to stretch out a little bit before eating?" Kit chuckled as he continued stretching.

Sportacus couldn't find any words and seemed unable to even shake his head.

Not quite satisfied that he'd gone far enough, Kit walked over to Sportacus and gave him a 'good morning' kiss. His lips weren't the only thing that brushed Sportacus as he leaned into him.

It was too much for Tobias and he fell off of his chair, struggling for air as he struggled to stop himself laughing. Kathleen still had her hands firmly clamped over her eyes, giggling as she tried to find her way out of the kitchen.

"You know I'm wondering, Sportacus, should be I worried that you put me to bed naked?" Kit asked innocently with his big little boy smile.

Sportacus snapped out of his state of shock and looked at Kit wide eyed, "I didn't put you to bed naked!"

Kit smiled and was about to respond when he heard the doorbell ring. Seeing that Kathleen was in no condition to answer the door, Kit took it upon himself to. Sportacus wasn't fast enough to stop him and the person on the other side of the door saw what everyone else in the house had.

Nine had been studying the house he knew his son was residing in before the door opened; he frowned when he lowered his eyes and saw Kit's nakedness. Kathleen's hands left her eyes and fell to her mouth as she tried to choke back her giggles.

Several loud bumps broken up by laughter sounded when Robyn rolled the rest of the way down the stairs at Kit's predicament. Nine decided to speak with her later but first he had a naked man to deal with.

"Ooh Nine! I'm sure there are laws against this!" Kit joked as Nine grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and frog marched him up the stairs.

Not wanting to upset his father further, Sportacus stopped himself from laughing and went over to Robyn who was in a heap at the bottom of the stairs.

"Are you ok?" He asked as he knelt beside her and sat her up.

All traces of laughter had drained from Robyn's countenance as she nodded, "Yeah I guess so. That was fun while it lasted."

Sportacus frowned as he cupped Robyn's chin, "That wasn't all just for his benefit was it?"

"No. I know he's been working full time to try and keep me in my happy bubble. I think it's starting to tell on him. You heard about last night?"

"About him punching someone, hitting Tobias in the process? I heard."

Robyn's eyes showed a trace of sadness as she faked a shadow of a smile, "So did I. I don't remember anything about it."

Concern filled Sportacus' features as he began to worry that the young woman before him was developing a problem. It hadn't escaped his notice that she was drinking more and more frequently and in greater amounts. He knew she was hurting but this was not the way to go about it. He understood why she was drinking but he could no longer stand by and let her destroy herself.

Standing, he held out a hand for her to take. She held onto it and pulled herself up. A few moments later a sulking Kit and scowling Nine came down the stairs. Kit was now fully dressed and approached Kathleen. He looked behind him at Nine who nodded sharply, telling him to go on with what he was going to do.

Sighing and looking back at Kathleen, Tobias and Salonen, Kit began to talk. "He told me to say sorry."

"Do it properly! Like we rehearsed." Nine snapped, his scowl deepening.

"Ok, ok. I'm sorry that I came downstairs naked and walked through your kitchen, even though I think you enjoyed it. I'm sorry for showing off my star fish and kissing Sportacus. I apologise for opening your door naked and scaring the neighbours. Tobias I'm sorry for accidentally punching you last night."

Tobias shook his head, "It's alright. It happens. Next time, keep your elbow a bit higher it will help you punch straighter."

"It's not the punching he needs to apologise for," Salonen pointed out, "Do you realise how much paperwork we have to fill out for punching a civilian and being punched by you?" He asked Kit.

"Oh cheer up Salonen, last night was great fun. It's the first time I've been kicked out of a night club in fifteen years. It's the most action we've had apart from the fire and all that; it's our first combat opportunity and you enjoyed knocking him out. I know you did." Tobias defended Kit, his need to dispel some testosterone having been satisfied when the fight broke out.

Kit smiled, "Well either way, I promise not to make a habit of it."

Nine's scowl eased slightly as he became satisfied with Kit's apology. Turning his mind back to the other person he needed to speak to, he pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to Robyn.

Robyn stared at Nine eyes and mouth wide open before looking back down at the specimen pot he'd just given her in her hand.

"You cannot be serious!" She whispered with audible outrage.


	4. Chapter 4

"You _cannot_ be serious!" Doctor Cole exclaimed when Nine gave him the specimen pot with a cursory explanation of his intentions for it.

Nine held his calm as he responded, "I am serious, very serious. Robyn has been to a number of night clubs and bars. I may be an old man but I am not a stupid one and I know what happens in these places."

"Don't you imagine that with her Network guardians with her all of the time much less Kit that it would be noticed if Robyn were to be taking any kind of substances?"

"Not if she goes where they can't follow her."

This was a statement that Doctor Cole couldn't disagree with. It was true that Robyn's companions could only watch her in areas in which they were permitted. Areas like the toilets were places where they were not.

"I'll take this down to the lab," Doctor Cole sighed, resigned to letting Nine have his way.

"How soon will you get the results back?"

"Last time I spoke to the lab they have some backlogged tests they need to deal with. Once it's cleared they should be able to look at this and the results for drug tests normally come back within two hours. When they come through I'll contact you. How will I be able to reach you?"

Nine thought for a moment, "Call Robbie's house. I'll be there. I'm going back there with Kit, Robyn and Sportacus. They're waiting for me in the car park, I'd better go."

As Nine turned and began to walk away he heard Doctor Cole call him back, he turned and saw the Doctor standing by his desk.

"A word to the wise, Nine. Robyn is a damaged young lady, a very damaged young lady. If these results come back showing anything untoward I would strongly caution you against throwing your weight around. Tread carefully."

Nodding a thank you to the Doctor, Nine strode from the room. He easily navigated his way back to the main entrance and the car park beyond. Robyn was staring at him through the car window with an emotion he couldn't place his finger on. It seemed a mixture of disappointment, defiance and sadness. He kept his eyes locked on hers as he walked towards the car, only breaking his eye contact when he got inside.

The drive back to Lazytown was one of total silence. Before the car had stopped completely, Robyn jumped out and walked briskly to her house. Nine was hot on her heels and narrowly avoided being hit by the front door when Robyn slammed it shut behind her.

"Oh my!" Mayor Meanswell cried as he stood watering his flowers and caught sight of what had just happened.

Kit looked from the Mayor, to the house and back to the Mayor where he saw Bessie edging cautiously out of the front door. Thinking it best to leave Robyn to cool down he jogged over to speak to the Mayor.

"Morning Mayor." Kit smiled before turning to Bessie, "I'd leave it if I were you Bessie. She's not in the best of moods. Nine's pissed her off again. I know you want to talk to her but it's best left until she's more amiable. She'll only bite your head off."

Bessie looked crestfallen when Kit had finished speaking. She'd wanted to talk to Robyn, for almost two weeks now she'd been desperate to speak to her and try to work things out. Every time she had gone to something had gotten in the way. She wished she hadn't kept the paternity test results to herself but it was too late to change that. Her heart ached for the girl when she thought of the results and what it would have meant to her had they been different.

"I do so hate it when Nine and Robyn fight. One minute they seem to be bonding and getting along fine, the next minute they've annoyed each other and they fall out. They have a very complicated relationship." Mayor Meanswell said almost to himself.

"To be honest Mayor I've seen less ups and downs from one of Sportacus' yoyos." Kit laughed. "Anyway, I'd better go. If I don't try and squeeze myself in between Nine and Robyn you'll soon have Langford breaking out the riot gear."

Bessie and the Mayor waved goodbye as Kit jogged back to the house. He crossed himself melodramatically before entering. Robbie was stood in the kitchen doorway looking extremely relieved that he was there while Nine was sat on the sofa frowning so deeply that his eyebrows looked as though they could connect with his chin.

Guessing that Robyn was upstairs, Kit smiled apologetically to Robbie before going in search of her. Luckily for Robbie, Sportacus entered soon after Kit had disappeared up the stairs and he felt slightly safer in the knowledge that he wasn't going to be left alone with the man that despised him.


	5. Chapter 5

Robyn was sat cross legged on their bed when he edged into the room, waving a white handkerchief as a sign he meant no harm. She smiled vaguely when she saw it and Kit took it that she was calm enough for him to talk to her. He tucked his handkerchief in his pocket and closed the door behind him before joining her on the bed.

"There's something you're not telling me isn't there?" Kit's question more of a statement, "You're calling his bluff aren't you? What have you taken?"

Robyn looked at Kit with a hint of surprise, "What do you mean, what have I taken?"

"Don't try and lie to me Robs. You know damn well that test is going to come back positive. Don't you think that after drifting for fifteen years I'd know the signs of someone taking drugs? What have you been taking?"

"Cannabis," Robyn whispered, her voice barely audible.

Kit closed his eyes, "That's not all is it?"

Bringing her knees up to her chest, Robyn buried her face in them as she confessed, "Cocaine."

"_Cocaine?!_" Kit shouted springing from the bed before catching himself and lowering his volume, "Cocaine? Cannabis is bad enough but do you know what that stuff does to you? Do you know how many people go from Cocaine to Heroin? Is that all you've done? Is that all you've taken?"

Robyn nodded, feeling stung by but understanding Kit's anger. She felt him sit back down on the bed beside her and wrap his arm around her shoulders. She allowed him to pull her towards him as she dropped her knees.

Kit rested his head on hers as he whispered, "I'm angry that you've been doing this Robs but I understand. I understand the drinking. You're trying to make yourself forget but it won't change anything. The drugs, they take the edge off for a while but as soon as that high wears off and you go on the come down it makes everything seem worse. You'll get to a point where you'll be going around and around in circles, taking a hit to combat the come down. They might make you feel better but drugs aren't medicine Robs, they're poison. You have to stop. You have to deal with what's tearing you apart."

"What if I can't?"

"You can Robs. You can because you're not alone. You can because you've got me. We can get through anything together and I will do my damnedest to get you clean. You need to talk to me, tell me what's eating you up inside and making you do these things."

"I can't, Kit. I can't."

Kit gently rocked Robyn backwards and forwards with him, she was upset but he had to keep pushing her. "It's what those results said isn't it? The paternity test ones. You have to tell me what they said. I love you Robs but I can't help you if you don't let me in. I am trying so hard to keep up with you and keep you happy but you're not the only one that's hurting. I see you hurt and it hurts me too but I have to stay strong for the both of us. We've been through so much together but you still won't open up to me. How can anyone help you if you keep blocking them out? Just tell me what those results said and we can fix it, tell me what they said and we can try and make things better."

His eyes shone as he felt her clam up. She took her head from his shoulder and buried her face in her knees once more. He leant over and kissed her temple before getting up and leaving the room. His head swam as he crossed the floor to the bathroom and shut himself inside. Putting the toilet lid down he sat on it and clasped his hands behind his head. Running his clasped hands over his head he stood up and looked in the mirror over the sink. His eyes were red and his cheeks blotchy. Running the cold tap he splashed water over his face before switching it off and drying his face with his towel. Exiting the bathroom he walked down the stairs and straight out the front door without a word or a look to anyone.

There was someone he had to talk to. Only one other person he could think of that Robyn might listen to.

Only one other person he might be able to get answers from.


	6. Chapter 6

They were all watching him. He could tell. They thought they were hidden by walls as they peeked around the corners of windows but he knew they were there. None of them moved from their houses as he walked lazily around the sports field. It felt good to be able to move without pain and feel the fresh air brush his skin and stir his hair. His strength was returning and his injuries inflicted by his mother seemed almost like a distant memory. He knew his guards could tell he was better and they were watching him more closely than they had been.

He knew the time was coming when he would be made to face up to his crimes. He knew he would be taken to his ancestral home and brought before the Network headquarters for interrogation. His fate was in their hands and it felt as though he should make the most of his short time outside in the sun. Surrounded by guards in the gated enclosure he could hardly class it as freedom but it was just as good.

'_They'll come for me soon, they know I'm healed. They'll take me to the Island in the North and I'll stand trial for what I've done._' Morgan thought as he began to drift in wide circles, '_I deserve what punishment they'll give me. I won't fight them. I'll just accept it, I already have. I'm a murderer and I'll receive a murderer's due._'

A voice calling him stirred him from his internal monologue. He looked up from where his eyes had sunk to his feet and saw Kit standing on the other side of the wall of the sports field. He studied him for a moment before walking towards him, his guards separating only slightly so he could converse with Kit a bit easier. Something about the clown's body language told him he was upset about something, thinking only of his sister he spoke first.

"What's wrong with Robyn?"

"I was hoping maybe you could tell me that. She talks to you; you're the only other person I can think of that can tell me what I need to know." Kit replied, not at all afraid of the man before him.

"I know she's troubled over the DNA results but it makes no difference to me who my father is. She hasn't told me."

Kit gritted his teeth and went to turn away but turned back to face Morgan, "You don't know about that but do you know what she's been up to? When she's been going out at night?"

"Apart from getting drunk?" Morgan queried, hinting to Kit that he'd asked the right question. Ignoring his guards, Morgan leaned in closer to Kit and lowered his voice to just above a whisper. "She came to see me after the third night you went out. She'd met with one of her friends from the clinic. She's the one that's been...supplying Robyn. I tried to talk to her but she was high on whatever she'd been given. She's still taking things isn't she?"

"Yeah and I don't know if I'm enough to get her to stop. I never thought I'd be saying this to the likes of you but I need help. She's stonewalling me and the only way we can get her off the junk and back on the straight and narrow is if we get her to tell us what's bothering her. I know you don't care who your father is or what the results said but she does. Talk to her Morgan, get her to talk to you."

Morgan drew back from Kit and looked at his guards. They'd heard Kit's plea and were waiting for him to make his next move. He looked again at Kit before walking over to one of the gates and leaping over it. His guards seemed to copy him as they leapt over the wall and followed him as he walked towards the house with Kit.

Sportacus, Nine and Robbie looked at each other with surprise as Kit entered followed closely by Morgan. Robbie quickly hid himself in the kitchen as both Sportacus' stood up.

This was the first time Morgan and Sportacus Ten had come face to face since their last confrontation in the house.

Their first meeting.

"I'm not here for you, this time." Morgan said, looking directly at Sportacus.

There was something in Morgan's tone that sent a shiver of fear through Sportacus. It made no difference to him that Morgan's guards were there in the room with him, watching him. It made no difference to him that Morgan had been proved unarmed; Lily didn't need weapons to kill people.

He was sure her son was just the same.

Without further invitation, Morgan mounted the stairs. Three of his five guards followed him; none of them tried to stop him as he knocked on his sister's bedroom door and entered. They remained outside the room, straining their ears to listen to any sounds coming from inside.

As he entered he could see Robyn sprawled out on the bed, she didn't move as he entered and his eyes narrowed. Something didn't seem right as he approached and still his presence didn't register. He could see a pouch nestled in her hand and he rushed over to her.

"Robyn! Robyn!" He exclaimed under his breath as he sat up her limp form and shook her briskly.

Robyn's eyes seemed to flicker and she gave a low moan. Ripping the pouch from her hand he looked inside it, sniffing it briefly he threw it aside and stood up. Knowing he had to act quickly he lifted her, her feet dragging on the floor as he pulled her across the room. He threw open the door and ignored his shouting guards as he lifted her and carried her into the bathroom.

Their shouting stopped as he knelt down on the floor in front of the toilet with Robyn, leaning her over his arm as he forced her mouth open with his other hand and stuck his fingers in her mouth.

Two of the officers turned away as they heard Robyn being sick. They saw their two companions and the worried faces of her family who had sprinted upstairs when the shouting started. Sportacus looked pale at the sounds of violent retching while Kit edged past the officer still watching the scene and entered the bathroom. He pushed the door to and joined Morgan on the floor.

As he felt Robyn relax against him, Morgan shifted his weight so he was sitting on his bottom with his legs stretched out. He pulled Robyn so she was leaning against him and he daubed her forehead with a wet face cloth that Kit had passed to him. Running it over her mouth to make sure there was no trace of the foul smelling sludge he'd forced her to vomit he threw it in the nearby bin.

He was glad when Kit flushed the toilet and put the lid down. No words needed to be exchanged between them as their eyes met and he could see intense gratitude shining from the soulful brown eyes of his sister's love.


	7. Chapter 7

"They call it 'Mother's ruin'," Doctor Malone said as he inspected the contents of the pouch given to him, "I suppose given Robyn's circumstance it's rather apt. We've had eight people rushed into the emergency room since this stuff came on the scene; it's claimed two lives and debilitated two other victims."

"What is it made from exactly?" Kit asked, his hand holding Robyn's while she was sleeping deeply on their bed.

Doctor Malone thought for a moment, "There's quite a list. It's a combination of some of the nastiest off cuts of the mainstream drugs. In each batch they've found traces of LSD, Cocaine, Heroin and some traces of what you'd find in ordinary medicine cabinets. It's a nasty one indeed."

"She'll be ok, right?" Robbie's head was spinning and he didn't know if he could hear anything less.

"Yes. Without Morgan's quick thinking it could have been a different story but then Robyn's metabolic rate is higher than the average person and it seems her body has metabolised it differently. I got in contact with Doctor Cole and he agrees that another hospital admission isn't warranted. She'll sleep it off and should be fine. Just push fluids and give her some TLC, she'll need it."

Sportacus shook Doctor Malone's hand as the man went to leave, "Thanks Doctor. I'm just so surprised that she did this, I never thought she'd do anything like take drugs."

Standing against the wall with his arms folded, Nine huffed.

Doctor Malone took note of Nine's reaction and responded, "Robyn's a smart young woman even though she doesn't always make the smartest choices and I'm sure she won't need anyone to tell her never to do this again. I'd imagine that she's unlikely to have become fully addicted to anything she's been taking but she may still go through withdrawal. You'll have to weather the storm if it happens. If you need any help you know the numbers to ring."

As Doctor Malone left, Nine walked over and closed the bedroom door behind him, blocking the Network Officers assembled on the landing from entering. He heard Langford's muffled protest but paid it no heed.

He had something to discuss with his family.

Morgan laid on the couch at the Mayor's house, staring at the ceiling. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the familiar shape of Bessie pass him and he looked up. She was hovering about the room nervously watching him until she thought it best to sit down, as she did so Morgan sat up.

"You did a good thing today." Bessie said at last. She'd heard what had happened at Robyn's house when the Network Officers had brought Morgan home.

"Hm." Morgan shrugged, smiling slightly. "I suppose it was. Not part of my usual behaviour. I was just in the right place at the right time, nothing more."

"Don't be so modest, dear. You really helped her."

"I doubt it will make a great deal of difference to the Network. One or two good deeds doesn't make up for the crimes I've committed. You forget I laid my blade on two of their officers. They weren't the only people I've killed. I've accepted that I'll be taken from here and given the punishment deserving of me. Lily always told me that amongst our kin from the Island there's only one solution for killing your own. Some might say it's barbaric, others that it's old fashioned but I doubt anyone will try and stay the execution of one of Lily's children."

Bessie gasped, "They wouldn't do that...they they can't! Heroes don't kill people!"

"Exactly, because they know of the punishment. Those that have killed once or twice, it's known that they receive a more lenient sentence but for those of us such as Lily and I, there is only one course of action that they'll take. Langford has already talked through it with me and informed me of the process. I'll be interrogated in the hopes I might reveal Lily's whereabouts, then I will stand trial for my crimes. It will remain in the eyes of the court how long I'm to be imprisoned before I receive my just punishment."

Unable to hear anymore, Bessie got up and left the room as quickly as her age would allow. She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue as she tried to dry the tears she felt running down her cheeks.

She couldn't believe it was true.

Knowing that he had the full attention of everyone with the exception of the sleeping Robyn, Nine spoke. "First thing in the morning I'm taking Robyn back to the Island in the North with me."

"What?" Sportacus wasn't sure he'd heard his father right.

"This place is too dangerous. There are too many influences. Regardless of the amount of people protecting her or looking out for her, things keep going wrong. I will no longer stand back and watch them happen. If anything she will be protected from Lily, she would never dare return to the Island."

"You can't do that!" Kit protested, "She was born here! She's lived her whole life here!"

"A life that's likely to be cut short if she remains here. How many more failures are you asking to be allowed to make? What more could I expect from an ex-villain, a clown and an incestuous son?"

"Here we go again!" Langford's muffled voice sounded behind the door; Nine's volume had increased to a level that could be heard from outside of the room.

Kit chuckled without mirth, "I'm surprised you don't fall over with the amount of times you go round in circles, Nine. All you do is cast blame on other people yet you've only been around for what? Six weeks? Have you ever wondered if you'd been here that the majority of stuff that's happened to Robyn wouldn't have happened anyway?"

"That's why I'm doing something now! Things have to change and the rot stops here!"

"And what?" Kit bit back, "You'll keep her prisoner? Lock her in a tall tower or a dungeon. Put her in a high chair and spoon feed her like a baby? Are you really that stupid to think that she won't fight you hammer and tongs to come back here if she even lets you take her in the first place? I might be a clown, I might be the Town Fool or the Village Idiot but even I see that taking her from a place she's only known, away from the people she loves and that love her that she'll be miserable. You're taking her away to fix her problems but you'll only bring up thousands more. You can't handle her Nine; she's too much for you. You're an old man. If you want to go back to the Island then do so, but you're not taking her with you."

Nine's jaw was set. He'd made up his mind and Kit's arguments did little to sway him.


	8. Chapter 8

As dawn broke over the horizon and light began to fill the room, Robyn opened her eyes. Kit was sleeping beside her and she turned over onto her side to face him. He smiled in his sleep when he felt her kiss him and run her hand over his back and down to his bottom. He giggled as she tickled his ear with her lips. Still half asleep he ran his hand over her head, smooshing her nose with his palm and murmuring 'ding dong'.

Holding back laughter, Robyn sat up slightly and whispered in Kit's ear.

Kit's eyes fluttered open as he heard Robyn's whisper in his ear. He looked at her with momentary confusion before his brain registered that he was awake.

"Well good morning, you're surprisingly awake considering what Doc Malone said you'd put in your body last night. Why did you do it Robyn? Why did you take the stuff?" Kit couldn't and wouldn't hide the concern in his voice.

Robyn rolled onto her back and gazed up at the ceiling, "It was all I had left. I needed something."

"Spoken like a true junkie," Kit intoned, rolling onto his back.

"I shouldn't have taken anything, I know. It was stupid. I'll never do it again, I swear. Forgiven?"

Kit felt Robyn's hand find his and despite his disappointment in her he squeezed it. Both laid in silence until a thought came into Kit's mind. He heard Robyn giggle softly as she detected what he was thinking.

"I can do better than that," Robyn whispered, sitting up and climbing on top of Kit.

Kit moaned with pleasure as Robyn started to kiss his neck, pressing her tongue in the groove between his neck and shoulder. He felt her nibble his ear lobe, sucking it where her teeth had stung him. He felt himself grow hard as she brought his hands to her breasts and pressed herself against his groin.

Struggling to still his moans of ecstasy, Kit bit his lip. He could barely contain himself as he pushed Robyn back slightly and pulled her top off. It was Robyn's turn to moan as he kissed first one breast than the other, running his lips over her nipples. As she pushed herself into his groin he pushed back, his hardness rubbing against her. Taking his hands from her breasts he pulled her head towards him and kissed her deeply, his tongue seeking hers. His hands found her breasts again and he caressed them, brushing her nipples with his fingers.

Through the thin fabric of his boxer shorts he could feel her moistness and it nearly pushed him over the edge. Pushing her back from him again he lifted his hips and pulled his boxers down, exposing his taut manhood oozing with his desire. It seemed to harden further as she lifted herself up and pulled off her knickers.

Robyn clamped a hand over Kit's mouth as he moaned louder than before as she brushed his manhood with her fingers. He grabbed her hips and she tilted her head back, moaning softly as he pulled her down onto him.

They moved together in rhythmic undulation. Their fluid movements in perfect harmony. Both were entirely lost in the pleasure they felt. Both entirely lost in one another.

So lost were they that they didn't hear the door of their bedroom open.


	9. Chapter 9

"Hey! Watch the merchandise!" Kit shouted as Nine stormed into the room and ripped Robyn from him.

Robyn tried to fight against Nine as he bundled her in a blanket from the bed but he was too strong.

"Let me go!" She cried as she continued to struggle against him, "What are you? Some kind of twisted pervert? You were watching the whole time!"

"GET OUT NOW!" Nine bellowed pointing at Kit and ignoring Robyn's accusations.

Not knowing what else to do, Kit grabbed Robyn's pillow and placed it over his manhood before jumping from the bed and running from the room.

Practically throwing Robyn onto the bed, Nine rifled through her drawers and wardrobe as he pulled out clothes and undergarments.

"Get dressed!" He ordered as he tossed a bundle of clothes at Robyn.

Nine turned away sharply as Robyn stood and ripped the blanket from her, revealing her nakedness. Her eyes were burning into his back as he heard her pulling on clothes. When her movements ceased he turned back to face her.

Matching her look of anger with his own he stood firm, "You're coming with me!"

Langford was taking part in the early morning patrols when he heard someone shouting his name. Ordinarily on seeing an almost entirely naked Kit running towards him he would have presumed himself to be the victim of a crude joke but the look on the clown's face told him this was something entirely different.

"Langford! You have to come quick!" Kit panted as he tried to catch his breath, "Nine's flipped, he's on one big time! You have to stop him!"

The time for asking Kit what had happened and why he was naked would come later. This was an urgent matter and Langford had to deal with it now. Signaling for another of his men to join him he burst into a run just as Nine emerged from the house carrying a kicking Robyn over his shoulder.

"_PUT ME DOWN_!" Robyn yelled at the top of her voice.

Unfazed by Robyn's volume, Nine continued to walk relentlessly towards the ladder of his airship. His ears were filled with a tirade of insults as he drew nearer his target.

"Have you totally lost the plot? When was the last time you had a shit because no one gets as grumpy as you do without having been completely constipated for the last six years!" Robyn shouted, "No wonder Lily's a bloody head case! I'm not surprised your children slept together, it's probably the only way they could cope with having you as a father! I've known you six weeks and I'm bloody sick of you already!"

Despite the situation unraveling before his eyes, Kit couldn't control his urge to laugh at what he was hearing.

Morgan appeared in the doorway of the Mayor's house having become aware of the commotion outside and surged forward with the intention of freeing his sister but was quickly tackled to the ground by several of the Network officers standing by in case they were needed.

Langford moved to approach Nine but found himself pushed out of the way as the older hero barged past him.

Nine's gait was wavering under Robyn's constant struggling but he remained strong, fuelled by his anger. Reaching his ladder he became to climb, Robyn's continued hurling of insults and slander incoherent to him. Climbing the ladder using only one hand and carrying his struggling quarry was dangerous yet he remained determined. As soon as he reached the platform he called for his airship to retract his ladder, preventing Langford or his men from scaling it.

Observers of the chaos woken from their slumber by Robyn's shouts looked on with disbelief as Nine commanded his platform to rise and he and Robyn disappeared from view.


	10. Chapter 10

Langford nodded his thanks to one of his men who brought him a megaphone from the boot of one of their vehicles. He switched it on and turned up the speaker volume as high as it would go. If his voice was going to reach Nine's lofty fortress it was going to have to be loud.

"Nine! This is Langford! What you are doing is in direct contravention of your hero code. This is classified as abduction and I will have no choice but to treat it accordingly! You will release Robyn immediately!"

Langford paused as he waited for some kind of response from Nine but none came.

Bringing the megaphone to his mouth again Langford shouted, "Nine! You'll be decommissioned for this! You'll be removed of your hero title and standing! Release Robyn _NOW_!"

Still no response came and Langford's frustration began to show. He swore under his breath as the airship started to move.

"Get me the override codes for Nine's airship! He can't be allowed to leave!" Langford barked at his men.

Two of his men ran to their burnt out base while another stepped forward nervously. He was noticed by his leader and the glare that met him made him shiver. Knowing that Langford wanted him to spit out whatever it was that he wanted to say, he did so quickly.

"I'm sorry Sir but Nine's airship doesn't have any override codes...it's too old."

"Damn it!" Langford roared, hurling the megaphone to the ground in temper and kicking it. "Get onto AMATS and tell Faas Addens that he better know a way of overriding Nine's airship."

Langford watched as his bearer of bad news commenced trying to reach AMATS on his radio.

It all seemed in vain as Nine pedaled his airship out of Lazytown airspace and into the great beyond.

Kit had long since stopped laughing and stumbled over to Langford, "You have to get her back. You can't let him take her."

"I'm sorry Kit. There's nothing else we can do here. Headquarters will have to take over and have him tracked. If they listen out for Robyn that shouldn't be too difficult. She hasn't half got one heck of a tongue on her, not to mention a pair of lungs."

Kit nodded knowingly, "This is why I try not to argue with her. She knows how to hit where it hurts and hit it hard. I don't know if Nine was deliberately ignoring you or if she'd deafened him."

Langford shrugged, as angry as he was at Nine he was also grateful that he wasn't in the man's place and feeling the force of a ranting Robyn.

Robbie approached the group assembled outside, stretching and yawning as he walked. He looked up to the spot in the sky they were all staring at and scratched his head. They were fixated on something but he couldn't tell what.

"What's going on?" He asked at last, still totally clueless.

Kit looked at Robbie incredulously, "Robyn's been shouting the town down and you slept all the way through it? Have you got too much orange fuzz in your ears or something?"

"Robyn was shouting? I didn't hear a thing. Maybe I do have some fuzz stuck in here…." Robbie trailed off as he stuck a finger in his ear and tried to dig out any potential obstruction to his hearing.

Only when he absently looked at Kit and realized that he could see the man's bottom that he ceased his ear digging and realized what had had the others so transfixed.

"You didn't…."

Langford stepped in before an annoyed Robbie set upon Kit. He had already lost control of one situation and was not about to let another get out of hand.

"Kit, go and get dressed. You and Robbie can talk about this calmly later." Langford prodded before looking over to the men still holding Morgan on the ground, "Let him up. Take him back inside and keep him monitored." Then speaking loudly to all assembled persons around him he declared, "Everyone go home! The show's over."

As everyone did as they were bid, Langford wondered just what he'd say to headquarters when he gave his report. All he could be certain of was that they wouldn't take his latest failure lightly.

It had pained him to do so but he'd no choice but to restrain and gag his granddaughter. She had snapped his last nerve and he knew it was too dangerous to fly the long distance to his home land with the distraction Robyn was causing him.

Looking over his shoulder at her intermittently he could see she appeared calm yet her eyes were darkened by the bleakness of rage. She had fallen silent under the gag but he knew that if he were to remove it she could soon resume shouting at him.

The filth that had come from her lips had astounded him and in denial he convinced himself it was just the drugs talking, not the essence of what she felt from within.


	11. Chapter 11

Flashes of his daughter haunted him. Memories he had tried so hard to suppress. Memories of a daughter lost to him when she was sixteen and as he surmised, pregnant with her first child. Clenching his jaw as he pedalled blindly through the night he remembered when he had last seen her. Her menacing glare when she had revealed herself, every fibre of her being filled with an insurmountable darkness.

Her words echoed through his head, "_And I hoped you'd be long dead and buried by now but life is full of disappointments isn't it?_"

Laden with malice this sentence had not disturbed him, it hadn't been the first time she'd wished his death. Thinking back to the time before she had disappeared from him he remembered the last words they'd shared with each other, words that had resulted in her threatening his life.

He could still feel the cold tip of the knife she had held at his chin. Her eyes holding his as her hand shook with its intent. He had remained still, pinned against the wall with her arm across his throat. She had let him go; only to beat her brother hours later when he had taken steps to have her dealt with.

Until he had seen his son sitting battered and bloody on his bedroom floor had he realised the true extent of his daughter's violence. He had always assumed that he was the only one she had inflicted physical harm on but discovering his son had made it clear to him that this was not an isolated incident.

Filtering the images within his mind, his thoughts turned to the eyes with which Robyn had glared at him and that were fixed upon him now.

They were so like his daughter's.

Was this what his granddaughter had become?

Steeling himself against his misgivings about his granddaughter he was again assaulted by memories of the daughter he had denied. His eyes looking inwardly and not at the horizon beyond him he could see her soul twist and contort with an evil neither he nor her mother possessed within them.

What had made her turn?

He could never understand what had made his daughter the malevolent creature she was. Many times he had tried to bring himself to understand but he had been sickened by the heart wrenching possibilities.

Had he loved her too much? Not enough? Had he doted upon his son, the next of his line too much? Had he disciplined her with an iron hand or allowed her too much freedom? Had she was always been this way or had he chosen to turn a blind eye? Had he caused her to become the monster she was?

Did his salvation lie in the young woman he had torn from her home?

Ceasing his pedalling he got up from his piloting section. He walked across the airship to the bed she was sitting on. His eyes implored with her to be still as he began to untie her bonds, his fingers wet with sweat as he released the knot tying her gag. He expected her to continue her verbal tirade against him but she remained silent as he pulled the gag from her mouth.

Without a word or motion, Robyn got up from the bed and passed through the revolving door to the bathroom. Sitting on the floor with her back against the door she wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her head on them. Closing her eyes she could feel the airship start to move again as it took her to a place she had been only once before in person and had heard many stories of.

A place she had always dreamed of going to once again but not like this. Not held captive by her grandfather who through his actions had reawakened memories of Cain binding her and leaving her encased in the darkness in which he had raped her.

It felt as though she wasn't alone in the room as she wrapped her arms tighter around her legs. She closed her eyes against the images forged in a place other than this but the action did little to spare her. She could see herself lying on the floor, Cain's body pressed against hers as he consumed her. His fingernails were tearing at her flesh as he stole her virginity and tarnished her forever.

Opening her eyes she could see a reflection of her eyes looking at her, pleading with her to end the torment. Eyes brimming with tears she crawled towards the image of herself being taken by Cain. She reached her hand out and felt shaking fingers interlace themselves with hers.

She could hide from what had happened to her no longer as she became the reflection of herself. Every attempt to bury what the therapists had hoped they'd resolved was undone as she felt the wounds inflicted on her by her brother's merciless fingernails reopen and she screamed as denial gave way to realisation.

Strong arms pulled her into an embrace that chased away the image of her rape and brought her back to where she was. Holding onto those arms as though they could stop her falling into an unending precipice she released the words she had been holding onto for so long.

"He raped me!"


	12. Chapter 12

They sat in an awkward silence. Hands folded in their laps as they stared off into space. They had to talk but neither one knew what to say or where to start. One felt as though he were a naughty school child while the other burned with disappointment without the simplest notion of where the direction of that disappointment was pointed. They both flinched as the front door opened and a familiar figure came through it. They didn't need to look up to know who it was; the speed with which he had come through the door told them that. The third of their number sat down also on the same sofa as the probable cause of the morning's events, the catalyst that had set them in motion.

Subconsciously, Sportacus was wringing his hands. He was annoyed not just with himself but with Kit. He'd heard of what had happened and he wanted to hear it from the man himself.

"Why?" He breathed.

Kit looked up at the question, "I don't know. One thing led to another and if it's any consolation, she came onto me."

"This isn't the first time you've had sex is it?" Robbie's tone was slow, his words calculated.

"Most people call it making love and no, it isn't. It's happened once before."

Sportacus was genuinely surprised, "When?"

"The night Lily came along and blew the lid off of your secret. Robyn needed something other than the images of Cain in her head. I obliged."

Robbie shook his head, "I'd always hoped you two would be married when you took that step. I guess given the circumstances it couldn't be that way, just tell me you used protection."

Kit shook his head.

It was more than he could hear and Sportacus jumped up, shaking his head and pacing the room before coming to a stop in front of the window. Kit watched him as he measured Sportacus' mood and the reaction he might get if he spoke further. He didn't have to think too long before Sportacus beat him to it.

"What if she gets pregnant? I know it's unlikely but what if it happens?"

"Then at least the kiddy will know who their father is because Robyn doesn't does she?"

Robbie looked at Kit first then at Sportacus who had whirled round, his face telling both men that Kit had hit the nail squarely on the head.

"I'm not Robyn's father." Sportacus confirmed, looking at Robbie with eyes full of hurt. "The results were negative."

Despite all of their past and present differences they shared something in common. They had both spent much of their lives believing that they were Robyn's father and surrendered so much. Now they were proven not to be her father and shared each other's pain. Robbie stood up as Sportacus walked back over to where he'd been sitting and put his arms around him.

Kit felt tears prickle his eyes as Robbie and Sportacus embraced, holding each other as they cried. He got up and joined them, hugging them both with an arm around each man's shoulders.

They only parted when Langford entered the house.

They were home. Not her home but his. The home he had been born in and raised his children in. It was the home she would now remain in and she had little choice in the matter. He had ignored her protests and the pleadings of his wife to see reason. He stood now, outside the door of the bedroom that had belonged to his son and willed it to open but despite his knockings on the door and requests for it to open it wouldn't budge.

Yuliya came out from the living area and stood next to Nine. She put her hand on his shoulder and rested her head upon it.

"What did you expect, Nine?" She whispered, trying to mask her reproachful tone. "You take her away from everything she has ever known, everyone she has ever loved and bring her to a place that is alien to her. She was hardly going to take it well."

Nine growled under his breath, "You or she might not see it but I've done the right thing. I did what had to be done. She's been in there three hours. She will have to come out sooner or later."

"Not if she's anything like you, Nine. Perhaps you could let me try and speak to her? I'm gentler than you and hopefully she has no reason to be angry with me."

Accepting defeat was a hard thing for Nine to do but he agreed, grumbling under his breath as he walked away. When he had disappeared into the living area, Yuliya knocked gently on the door.

"Robyn? It's me, your grandma. Can you let me in?"

Stepping back from the door as she heard movement on the other side, Yuliya smiled when the door opened slightly and a cautious pair of eyes looked out from the crack. They searched the visible area outside of the door before opening it wide enough for her to pass through. She walked further into the room before turning and seeing her granddaughter shut and sit on the floor in front of the door where she had previously situated herself.

They were strangers to one another. Related by blood but never having gotten to know each other. She knew of her granddaughter's traumatic past, her husband having told her what he had been told. She had been saddened as had he and she too felt the sting of failure in not having involved herself in her granddaughter's life sooner.

Pulling a chair out from beneath a desk, Yuliya seated herself upon it. It had been a long time since she'd been in this room and it was almost as it had been the day her son left it to live in his airship. All around her were memories. Trophies stood on shelves, sports equipment cluttered one corner, photos of family hung in small wooden frames on the walls and a large number ten was emblazoned on the ceiling above their heads. Her son's number, an exact replica of the crystal casing he wore on his uniform.

Robyn was studying her as she studied the room. She looked down at her granddaughter and smiled gently, her smile dimmed as she remembered what Nine had said earlier.

"Nine told me you were upset in the airship. How are you feeling now?"

Robyn shrugged nonchalantly, "I don't know. I guess it's the first time I've really accepted it and relived it. I'd feel a lot better if I was at home."

"I know," Yuliya cooed sympathetically, "I don't know what Nine was thinking. He acts before he thinks when he should think before he acts. Unfortunately he always feels that he's right regardless of the truth. Don't think of him too harshly though, Robyn. He's a painfully proud man who takes the traditions of his family very seriously. He goes by the morals laid down to him by his forefathers and it's the only way he knows."

"It just makes me feel like no matter what I do, he'll always judge me. Like I'll never be good enough or I'll always remind him of Lily."

"Nine has always taken a heavy burden upon himself for Lily's actions. Ultimately I think he feels responsible for what she has become. Often he goes nights without sleep, trying to understand what made her the way she is and blaming himself for not seeing it or acting sooner. He is the way he is with you Robyn because he doesn't want to fail you in the same way he feels he failed her. Ever since we heard of your birth he shunned you because he feared that his influence in your life might have the same effect as it had on Lily. He came to see you that first time because he finally came to realise that he was wrong."

"But by doing things like this he's just going to keep pushing me further and further from him so the end result will be the same."

Yuliya nodded, Robyn was right. She just wondered how long it would take for Nine to see that as well.


	13. Chapter 13

Everything within the house was quiet. Unable to sleep she slowly climbed out of bed. Tip toeing across the floor towards the door she reached out with her senses. Both of her grandparents were in their bedroom asleep. Not knowing how soundly they slept she pulled open the door gently before sliding through the gap. Creeping stealthily down the hallway she stopped in front of the front door. Laying her hand upon the knob she tried to turn it but it wouldn't move.

The door was locked.

Moving her hand from the knob to her head she brushed her hair back as she thought of what to do next. Unable to think of anything she began to walk back to her new bedroom but stopped outside of a door when something tugged at her. Emanating from the door she had stopped at was a feeling she had felt before. It was a feeling that haunted her whenever she thought upon the person that had ruined so many lives through senseless murders and lies.

The room was Lily's.

Resting her hand on the door handle she was assaulted with images. Biting hard on her lip she tried to remove her hand but something seemed to take over as her arm pushed down on the handle and the door swung open. Her legs and feet pulled her into the room as she tried to turn away. As her feet dragged her into the centre of the room the door closed softly behind her.

Light filled the room. It was no longer night but morning. As she looked around she could see pictures on the wall drawn by a child, some were merely scribbles while others seemed to take more form and shape. A large chest stood beneath a window on which gel shapes had been stuck. Poking out from underneath the lid of the chest were toys of different kinds. On the small bed to her side a well loved teddy bear was tucked up in blankets until its owner came to play with it again.

She felt the door open behind her and a little girl ran in, passing through her body. She heard a man's voice and he too passed through her, covered in a sheet and making ghost sounds.

"Lilijana! Where are you?" The voice beckoned beneath the sheet.

The little girl laughed as the man in the sheet found her with searching hands, grabbed her hands and lifted her arms upwards. Her feet left the floor as he allowed her to somersault forwards and then backwards. As her feet touched the ground again the man flipped the sheet off of him and onto the girl. As the man turned around and began to run away, Robyn saw his face.

It was her grandfather.

There was no mistaking who the little girl was as she peeked out from beneath the sheet to see in which direction her father had run. As both passed through her the images in the room began to change.

The scribbles on the walls were gone, replaced by more advanced sketches of magical forests and mystical creatures. The old chest still remained but its lid was shut tight. On the bed lay the same old teddy bear but it was laid carelessly on top of the blankets.

She could hear voices approaching, one sounded angry while the other had the tone of someone trying to quell the anger. Moving from the centre of the room, Robyn placed herself against a wall. She watched as two girls came into the room. One of the girls was an older version of the one she had seen before at a younger age. Her looks were more prominent now and her eyes seemed cold despite her youth. The other girl was unfamiliar but it was easy to tell that she was the one trying to pacify her friend.

Robyn's mother.

"Lily! You're being stupid!" The girl moaned, aggravated at her lack of success at making her friend see sense. "I only said I thought your brother was cute."

Lily stormed past her friend as she slammed the bedroom door shut. With all of the grace she carried in adulthood she walked back over to her friend. A familiar expression crossed her face before she laid a slap across her friend's cheek.

"I told you not to repeat it!" Young Lily hissed, her face mere millimetres from her friend's.

Both girls turned around as someone knocked on the door and opened it. Robyn could see her grandmother standing in the open doorway, she was much younger and Robyn could tell that she had lost none of her beauty with age.

"Is everything alright in here girls?" Yuliya asked suspiciously.

From her place by the wall, Robyn could see Lily snaking a hand round to her friend's back. She raised her hand to her friend's hair and knotted it in her fist, squeezing it hard as a strong indicator that her friend had better answer in the affirmative.

Lily's friend took the hint.

"Yes, Bana Yuliya. We're ok. Me and Lily were playing a game."

Yuliya looked from Lily to her friend, "Are you sure, Agna? Your father returns later tonight, I'm sure your mother would like to celebrate his return with you. If you've changed your mind about staying over I can ask Sportacus to take you home."

Agna's eyes began to water as Lily squeezed her hair tighter. She could only manage a weak smile and a nod to say that she wanted to stay. Dissatisfied and with eyes still burning with caution, Yuliya left the room.

Robyn could feel Agna's pain as Lily ripped her hand from the girl's hair, taking a massive clump with it. Agna's hand found the sore patch and she rubbed it as she turned to face Lily, her brown eyes full of hurt and confusion.

"What is wrong with you?" She whispered.

Lily smiled her classic, dangerous smile. "Not as much as is going to be wrong with you if you tell anyone about this."

"You're a bully Lily. You've always been a bully. You're a bully and a liar. I know you lied about how Fraans got hurt when he fell from the tree we were climbing. He won't ever walk again and it's your fault. You pushed him out of that tree. Didn't you?"

"I did. I pushed him and I watched him fall. You better hadn't tell anyone or the same might happen to you or worse." The threat in Lily's voice was clear.

A terrified Agna began to panic. Her hand dropped from her head to her side and she went to scream and run away but Lily was quickly upon her. Lily's hand clamped over Agna's mouth and the two girls struggled. Both lost their footing and Agna's head connected with the wooden frame of the bed. Dazed, she stopped trying to scream and watched helplessly as Lily reached up and took a pillow from the bed.

Robyn was helpless to stop the situation as Agna seemed to break from her daze and went to scream before Lily covered her face with the pillow. Agna's hands tried swiping at Lily's face as she fought to push her off but Lily didn't move. Their movements became more desperate as her legs began to kick out, her body trying anything to remove the object blocking her airway. Eventually Agna's movements ceased.

She would move no more.

Hours seemed to pass in a matter of seconds as Lily got up from where she had sat herself on the floor drawing. Going over to Agna's lifeless body she pinched herself until tears formed in her eyes. Taking a deep breath in she screamed.

"_MUMMY_!"


	14. Chapter 14

Yuliya came running into the room followed closely by a much younger Sportacus. Seeing the girl lying still on the floor she sent Sportacus back out with an order to find a doctor. He did so quickly while Yuliya tried to rouse the girl until she saw the blue tinge to her lips and realised that she was too late.

"What happened?" Yuliya asked through gritted teeth.

Lily made good use of her fake tears and sobbed, "I don't know. She fell out of bed. I was drawing. She didn't get up when she fell out. I tried to say her name but she didn't listen. Is she ok?"

"She's dead Lilijana. She's dead!"

Everything in the room shifted once again. The image of her grandmother clasping the dead Agna faded as did that of the fake crying Lily.

She was left alone in semi darkness.

Sketches still remained on the walls. The old chest remained but its lid ajar showed it was stuffed with assorted clothes. CDs littered the bed and posters were scattered amongst the sketches. Make up was strewn over a study desk, a smashed mirror reflecting what little light was in the room in a variety of shapes on the ceiling above it.

Still reeling from what she had seen before, she didn't notice the young girl that had come to stand beside her. She jumped as the girl brought her hand up to hers. Looking down she saw Agna. As she felt the girl tug at her hand she came to kneel beside her. Agna shivered violently as the door swung open.

"I don't like this part." Agna whimpered as if she had been trapped in the room since her death, reliving past events over and over again.

Robyn couldn't reassure the spirit as Sportacus dashed into the room. He was older now, a young man in his twenties. He seemed to look about him as if searching for something. His hands opened drawers and searched them before reaching up to fumble amongst ornaments on the shelves above the desk. So desperate was he to find what he was seeking that he didn't see Lily enter the room and lean against the wall just inside, turning something in her hands.

"Looking for something, brother?" She purred as she held up the item she had been turning in her hands.

The item he had been looking for.

Sportacus reached out his hand as he walked towards her, "Give it to me Lily."

"Nah eh eh!" Lily intoned wagging her finger as she held the held the item behind her back.

"At least tell me what it said!" Sportacus demanded.

"Oh, brother. You know you don't get anything without something in return. If you want to know what it says you'll have to work for it."

Disgust flooded Sportacus' features as he turned away from his sister. He closed his eyes as he seemed to draw strength from within. Lily walked around to face him as he opened his eyes.

"I won't do it Lily. I won't let you manipulate me anymore!"

Lily's body visibly tensed with anger at Sportacus' refusal of her obvious intention. He braced himself for what was coming but it did little to prepare him for the devastating blow he received.

Crashing to the floor he looked up, he seemed to weigh up whether it was best to stand up or remain where he was. As Lily made no further move towards him he began to stand but she kicked out at him, her foot connecting with his jaw.

Throwing aside the item she had held in her hands, Lily grabbed Sportacus' hair and dragged him across the floor. Knocking his head against the wall she released his hair and kicked him in the back. He tried to drag himself away from her but she grabbed the back of his shirt and turned him over roughly.

"Why don't you ever fight back?" Lily whined, seemingly exasperated by the one sided fight.

Sportacus ran the back of his hand over his bloodied mouth, "Because I'm not like you. Because I will _never_ be like you. Just like you will never be like us. Because you will _never_ be a hero!"

"Good!" Lily replied as she came close to Sportacus, "I don't want to be a hero. I've never wanted to be a hero. I've never wanted to be the weak, pathetic, mindless drone it makes you. We are capable of so much more than wasting our lives saving people."

"But what you do is wrong!"

"There's no such thing as right or wrong! There's only popular opinion. But going by your logic dear brother, if what I believe is wrong why am I stronger than you? Why are you lying there now, weak and pathetic? Why do our parents stand by knowing full well what kind of person I am? Because your morals make you weak. Because that inane belief that there is good in everyone gives them false hope that I'll change. I never will. I will always be this way. Evil is what makes me strong and will always make me stronger than you."

Sportacus closed his eyes as he delivered the only blow he felt strong enough to, "Evil might make you strong now but you'll always be weaker than the force of good and love. You might beat me, break my bones and make me bleed but you will never change who I am. As a hero it will be my vow protect people against people like you and you won't always win. Good always comes through in the end."

Robyn felt Agna's grip on her hand tighten as Lily's eyes darkened and she bared her teeth. Agna buried her face in Robyn's shoulder, cowering as Lily drew back and started kicking at the prone Sportacus. Helpless to fend off the attacks he tried to drag himself away but she followed him. Unable to stop himself he cried out, the action he'd always tried to guard himself against. One cry led to another, each cry fuelling Lily's desire to inflict more and more pain on her stricken brother. She tore at him, scratching and hitting him. Driven to a frenzy her attacks grew almost to fever pitch until she began to run out of strength, Sportacus falling silent as he started to lose consciousness.

Robyn held onto Agna as she watched Lily sink to the floor exhausted. What unfolded next was almost as shocking to Robyn as the violence she had witnessed. Lily knelt over Sportacus and brought her lips to his ear.

"By the way, the test result was positive. I'm pregnant with your child."

Everything in the room shifted and changed again. Robyn was plunged into darkness and left alone. As the door opened slowly she looked round and saw Nine standing in the doorway.

"Lilijana?" He murmered wiping sleep from his eyes and trying to get his sleep addled brain to focus.

Nine caught himself as he realised what he'd said and he stared blankly at Robyn for a few seconds. He was trying to place her in the room. Robyn stood up, unsure at how she felt about being confused with her mother but understanding that though enforced her presence in the house was only recognisable to him in the room that he placed her in.

"What are you doing in here? I locked this room years ago. How did you get in?" Nine questioned.

Robyn considered her answer for a moment, "Something drew me in here, or rather someone."

The light in the ceiling flared into life as Yuliya appeared behind Nine. It was evident that she had avoided this room for years and was trying to keep her eyes fixed only on Robyn in case they should wander and she should see reminders of the evil soul that had inhabited the room.

"Someone?" Yuliya repeated.

"Agna."


	15. Chapter 15

Langford waited patiently as the three men sat themselves down and looked at him expectantly. He had brought them news but was sure that not all of it was good. He had spent a long time in contact with his superior, the head of his division. His superior in turn had done all he could but their power was limited against the influence of the problem in hand being escalated out of their reach.

Knowing that etiquette forbade it but not caring for etiquette or other associated pleasantries, Langford seated himself on the coffee table. It was the only place he could sit down and look at the men surrounding him and from where he was he'd have a soft landing if the youngest of the group took ill of what he had to say.

A wry smile twisted Kit's lips as a quote passed through his mind that he voiced. "That table's for glasses, not for arses."

"Given the circumstances you won't blame me for sitting down. I'm not going to waste time with the good news/bad news aspect as what news I have is good or bad depending on how you take it." Langford explained, smiling slightly at Kit's joke. "AMATS, the Airship tracking service, started tracking Nine's airship almost immediately after we contacted them. They've confirmed that Nine has returned to the Island and Network officers in the area reported that he had a young woman matching Robyn's description with him when he left the airship and entered his home."

Robbie closed his eyes and released a sigh before opening them again, "Well that's something at least. How do we get her back?"

"That's where we might have an issue. News of Nine's actions has gone to the top, the very top of the Network and spread to the Heroes' Council. As dim a view as they take about how Robyn came to be on the Island, they agree with Nine's reasoning."

"_What_?" Sportacus snapped, knowing full well of the Heroes' council and what their involvement might mean.

"They agree that Robyn will be safer there than she is here though we have no doubt that Lily still has influence on the Island. In light of Nine's actions the Council has deliberated that at noon tomorrow he will be stripped of his title, the first in your line to be taken out of commission. As for Robyn, the Council has agreed that they don't have absolute power in deciding her future. You know by our laws, Sportacus, that until she is twenty five she isn't considered a full adult and with the concerns over her mental health she would normally be deemed unable to make a solid decision for herself with regards to her welfare. However, as Robyn was born here and is a Lazytown national they have no power to keep her on the Island if she chooses not to stay."

"So what happens now?" Kit asked, somewhat hopeful but still guarded against the possible outcome.

"My superior, the division head of the team here is going to Nine's house within the next two days to discuss Robyn's options with her. Should she choose to come back he'll bring her with him. It's been agreed that it's time for him to take over here. With Lily breaking through and attacking Bessie and Robyn, not to mention the base being burnt down in broad daylight and Nine kidnapping Robyn I've been found incompetent. The only thing stopping the Network pulling me back to headquarters and decommissioning me is how well Morgan has been kept under wraps and how we've managed to keep track of Robyn without her disappearing again."

Robbie looked puzzled, "What happens if she chooses to stay there? Where do you guys go?"

"We'll still be here even if Robyn isn't. We're not here primarily for her. Our duty is to safeguard the town against Lily or anyone that might be directly linked to her. We monitor Robyn purely so that she doesn't disappear again, she made a lot of people nervous when she ended up with Lily and if she ran away a third time there's no telling where she'd end up. Because of her involvement with Lily, it makes Robyn much more of a target not only from our favourite homicidal maniac but those that might see her in the same light as her mother. Robyn's resemblance to Lily doesn't go unnoticed, I've witnessed it myself when I took her to that cafe in Crazytown. If even they can match the two of them together it would hardly be difficult for anyone else to do the same."

Kit nodded, "I have to admit I noticed a few people giving her funny looks when we were out a couple of times. When we went to a bar on the edge of Crazytown once most of the people left, I just pegged it down to being smelly."

Langford stifled a chuckle, "The upshot of it is people are scared. When people are scared they either run away or confront what frightens them. With any luck no one will try to attack Robyn but we can't rule out it happening in the future if she comes back from the Island. At the moment our biggest concern is Lily, we have no idea of her whereabouts or when she might strike again. If she can go as far as to target Bessie, anyone could be next. You three have all had dealings with her and you're all close to Robyn. If Lily can't get to Robyn here you know she might try to get to her through one of you."

Robbie, Sportacus and Kit looked at each other nervously. They hadn't considered the possibility that they could be targets as well.


	16. Chapter 16

Someone banging on their front door woke them from their slumber. It was early in the morning, too early to receive visitors so they ignored it and tried to go back to sleep but still the banging continued. They looked at each other, sure in the knowledge that the person banging on their door wasn't going to give up. Both rose from their bed, putting on slippers and slipping on robes before leaving the confines of their bedroom and ambling sleepily to the hallway of their home. As head of the house he moved towards the door, his wife lingering behind him. He looked to her before unlocking the door and pulling it open. If he wasn't so surprised to see the man on the other side he would have closed to door instantly.

"Nine, Yuliya. It's been a long time!" He exclaimed, "But what is the meaning of this? It's early."

"It's been thirty years, Leon. I apologise for it being early but unfortunately I have someone here to see you who wouldn't wait."

Nine stepped aside and revealed Robyn who had been standing behind him. Leon looked at her and instantly felt his heart leap into his mouth. He went to slam the door but he couldn't get it to move. It seemed as if someone was holding it open, an invisible force stopping him from closing the door. Ignoring the woman on his doorstep he gave a cursory look to the hinges to see if they had jammed but nothing seemed wrong with them. His wife tugged at him to close the door and come away but with all his efforts it was still stuck fast.

"You have to hear me out." Robyn stated calmly, forcing Leon and his wife to look at her. "I know who I look like and why you're scared but you have to listen to what I have to say. There's something you need to know about Agna."

At the sound of his daughter's name, Leon's hands dropped from the door. In a daze he motioned for Nine and his companions to come in. His wife, equally dazed, showed them to the living area and sat down. Turning to follow the others, Leon snapped his head round when the front door slowly closed on its own. He went back over to it and opened it before inspecting it again and closing it.

This was too strange.

Taking a seat next to his wife, Leon studied Robyn. He knew to whom she was related but had known nothing of her existence. Now she was here, seated on one of his chairs in his house with something to tell him about the daughter he had buried thirty years ago. He nodded, signalling he was ready to hear it.

Deciding it was best to be direct, Robyn got straight to the point. "I know what happened to Agna. I know how she died and that her death wasn't an accident."

Nine and Yuliya were as stunned at this revelation as Leon and his wife, the two couples looked at one another. Yuliya cast her mind back to when she had held Agna in her arms and the thoughts that flashed through her mind. The questions she'd asked herself that no mother should have asked of a child.

His shock turning to anger, Leon rose and stormed over to Robyn. "What do you mean by coming into my house and telling me this? How do you know this?"

"Agna showed me what happened. Her spirit is trapped in the house, she can't leave or move on until you know and accept the truth." Robyn seemed unfazed by Leon's anger as she spoke to him softly.

Leon's wife began to get angry also and she pointed an accusing finger at Nine and Yuliya, "How dare you bring this person into our lives? Into our home? What does she know of our dear, sweet Agna? What does she know of the pain of burying a child? It's been thirty years and we still haven't gotten over it and now you bring her here to spout this nonsense about our dead daughter showing her things. She's as mad as that poisonous creature you called a daughter."

"Calm yourself, Eres and listen to what Robyn has to say." Nine defended his granddaughter.

Eres lowered her hand and she looked to her husband who stepped back from Robyn but remained standing.

"I know this is hard for you but Agna needs you to know what happened. You're still in pain because you don't know the truth and it's keeping her from crossing over. Lily killed Agna; she smothered her with a pillow and held it over her face until she died."

As Robyn's words hit him, Leon stumbled backwards and landed heavily on the sofa next to his wife. They grasped each other's hands as they wept, their anger turned back to devastation.

Robyn's focus shifted from the grieving parents to the little girl that appeared beside the sofa they sat upon. Tears slid down her cheeks as she smiled at the little girl and the girl smiled back.

"She's here." Robyn whispered. "She says she loves you. She doesn't want you to be sad anymore. You feel angry at Grumpy and Grandma but she doesn't blame them. Lily is responsible, no one else. She says she needs to know its ok for her to move on."

His eyes heavy with grief, Leon looked to where Robyn was gazing and forced a smile. "I love you, baby. Daddy loves you and so does Mummy. Don't be afraid, we'll be ok. We miss you, we'll always miss you and we'll never forget you. Go and be with your brother, he'll look after you."

Robyn watched as Agna smiled at her parents, wiping a tear from her eye before she began to fade.

She felt her spirit leave and knew she was at peace.


	17. Chapter 17

They sat in silence at the table. Each was lost in their own thoughts as they ate an early lunch. None of them had wanted to retire after they'd returned home and they'd made the silent decision to stay awake. Despite their early morning none of them were tired even though the events of the day had been emotionally charged.

Nine looked up from his soup and softly spoke his granddaughter's name. She looked at him expectantly.

"I just wanted to say Robyn, I'm proud of you. What you did today wasn't easy but you handled it well and stood your ground. I know we've had our differences but you've made me very proud."

There was a touch of surprise in Yuliya's smile when she turned to Nine and took his hand. She knew his pride was often hard to obtain and that he had never spoken those words to Robyn who looked gobsmacked.

Robyn was about to reply when a loud knocking sounded on the door. Nine jumped up and answered it; his voice could be heard from the hallway. As he walked dejectedly back into the kitchen he was followed by two official looking men in robes that Robyn didn't recognise. They barely acknowledged her or Yuliya as they directed their attention to Nine.

"You know why we're here, Nine." One of them stated.

Nine nodded, "Because I abducted my granddaughter from her home and brought her here. I disobeyed a direct order to release her and violated my vows as a hero. You're here to remove my title of Hero."

"We are. You will surrender your crystal and your uniforms, AMATS will claim your airship back and you will from now on be known only as Sportacus. A great many trainees look up to you and your principles. We're very disappointed that we have to do this." The other man in robes informed.

Yuliya made a motion to protest but Nine shook his head at her. With a heavy heart he tapped the crystal casing on his uniform and removed his crystal from it. Holding it in his fingers he looked at it, his eyes filled with remorse. He was about to hand it over to the men in robes when Robyn placed her hand over his and stood between him and the men.

"You can't do this!" She announced, holding firm.

Both men in robes looked surprised as one of them stood forward, "We can. You cannot stop this. Your grandfather has admitted what he's done and he must be punished accordingly."

Robyn dropped her hand from Nine's, turning her back on the robed men she took the crystal from him and placed it back in its casing. Securing it in place she ignored Nine's wide eyed expression and turned back to face the robed men.

"You can't do this to him. I won't let you. I admit totally that he's a stubborn, bull headed, incredibly old fashioned, up tight, overzealous, grumpy, tyrannical, over bearing arsehole. But he's still my granddad and I love him. He took me away because he was trying to save me. Not from a burning building, falling tree or natural disaster but from myself. He was only doing what he has devoted his entire life to. If you take his crystal and his title away you're taking away his life. You said that a lot of trainees and recruits look up to him, what kind of message to do you send them by taking away the title of someone that was only doing their job?"

Both robed men looked at one another, wide eyed and open mouthed. Never had they encountered anything like this in all of their years in the Heroes' Council. They had faced protests before but none of this nature. Snapping themselves out of their surprised state they looked at Nine who had stood and was looking at Robyn with the same expression that they imagined they had worn.

"This is most...irregular." The first robed man stumbled, "You have a very...eloquent champion in your granddaughter."

"You do indeed," The second robed man agreed, "She has made a very valid point that I can find no argument to thwart. I'm sure my fellow council member agrees that you may keep your crystal and your title. You must still face punishment for your disobedience of an order from a Network Officer but for now I believe our business here is concluded."

Without a further word both men left the house leaving a triumphant Robyn and her two astounded grandparents alone. Robyn lifted a hand gently to Nine's jaw and pushed it up so his mouth closed before winking at him and leaving the room. His eyes followed her until she disappeared from view and they fell upon his wife who seemed amused as she stood up and walked over to him.

"I haven't seen you look like that since we first met, Nine. She's certainly not the person either of us imagined her to be." Yuliya observed as she kissed her husband's cheek.

"She most certainly isn't." Nine mumbled.

Yuliya chuckled as she left the room and went in search of Robyn. As she passed the front door someone knocked on it and she opened it slowly, fearing that the representatives from the Heroes' Council may have changed their minds. On the other side of the door was a man wearing a Network uniform, without hesitation she allowed him to pass through.

"Good afternoon," She greeted, her eyes studying him with a hint of nervousness.

The Network officer smiled gently, "Good afternoon. I've come to see Robyn and have a word with her if I may. I'm the division head of the team in Lazytown and there are a few things we need to discuss."

"Of course, I can fetch her for you." Yuliya acquiesced, "Who should I say is calling?"

"Boris."


	18. Chapter 18

It began to rain as he stepped out from the house. He looked up at the sky, blinking against the raindrops as they trickled down his face. Winter was coming closer but its transition seemed milder than most years. Spending most of his younger life in England he'd seen his fair share of rainy days and harsh winters. The rain didn't bother him as he strolled through the town. His men seemed less comfortable with it as they tried to shield themselves from the growing raindrops that broke into smaller sprays when they made impact with anything in their path.

As the rain grew heavier still he pulled his collar up so it hugged his neck. With dark clouds stealing away the daylight people were beginning to turn their house lights on, before they closed their curtains he could see them looking through the windows at him and his men. He waved at them and they waved back. As he passed by Trixie's house he heard her front door open. Looking round he saw her standing just inside the doorway, keeping out of the rain and looking at him quizzically.

"Mad dogs and Englishmen." Langford quoted smiling at Trixie.

Trixie understood the nature of the phrase and crossed her arms as she leaned against the wall, "Well we all know you're an Englishman but are your men all mad dogs?"

"For staying out in this I suppose they are. They're only following orders."

"Maybe you could change their orders before Doctor Malone has to come here and treat sixteen cases of pneumonia?"

Langford raised his eyes to the sky again before looking about him at his men doggedly carrying out their patrols in the driving rain. What should have been a simple decision had him in two minds. Taking his men off of their patrols and into the warm and dry was the right decision when it came to their welfare but he couldn't guarantee that Lily wasn't nearby and wouldn't take advantage of the poor weather and no visible security around the town.

A strong gust of wind made up his mind and he put in a radio call to all of his men, they all heard it and those within sight looked to him for confirmation before they headed back to their reconstructed base. He nodded to confirm his order and smiled at Trixie before he walked away whistling.

Trixie shook her head and closed her front door. She walked into the lounge and smiled at her friends who had listened in to the exchange. Stingy and Ziggy shuddered at the state of the weather outside before Trixie shut it out by closing the blind and then the curtains. It was cocoa weather and she smiled as she sniffed the air and was grateful that Ziggy had helped himself into her kitchen and made them all a fresh batch. Seating herself down she took a sip of cocoa from the mug set down in front of her, it was a little too chocolaty for her taste but out of manners she drank it anyway.

Still somewhat alien to basic manners, Stingy took a sip of his cocoa before grimacing and setting it back down on the table. Pulling a face at Ziggy's slightly hurt expression he looked back at Trixie who was evidently annoyed at him. He shrugged at her before moving things along.

"So what are we going to do? How can we get Robyn back?" He asked.

Ziggy looked down glumly, "What if she doesn't want to come back? A lot of bad stuff has happened to her here, she could have a new life out there."

"We can't think like that!" Trixie protested, "Robyn is one of our oldest friends. We grew up with her and she belongs here. Besides, she'd never leave Kit."

"Unless Kit goes there with her," Ziggy whined in the same fashion he had done when he was six.

Stingy slapped his forehead with distraction, "Kit wouldn't leave Robbie and I agree with Trixie, Robyn would never leave Kit. I can't vouch for whether she'd leave Sportacus or not after all the mess that's gone on but they seem to have gotten better."

"True. Though I didn't think we'd ever see that happening. We're still in the dark about what those results said but they seem to have gotten over it nonetheless. I just hope Robyn and Bessie can clear things up especially as Christmas isn't far away." Trixie replied.

"If Robyn can get over what's happened with Sportacus she can forgive Bessie. I'm sure we can all get past what's happened this year and move forward. Hopefully Nine will see sense and let Robyn come back. Robyn will be happy again and there won't be any fighting anymore. We'll all go on like nothing bad has ever happened and we'll be stronger than ever because we'll all stick together. Lily or no Lily." Ziggy declared hopefully as he snapped out of his sad mood.

Trixie and Stingy nodded their agreement but they weren't sure if Ziggy's ideal world outcome would be the one that greeted them in the coming new year.


	19. Chapter 19

He hadn't expected a warm greeting yet the coolness of the one he was met with had caught him off guard. She had shunned acknowledging his presence and when she had finally been persuaded by her grandmother to at least hear what he had to say she had greeted him with a coy attitude. He knew full well that gaining her trust would be an awkward exercise but it was necessary in light of his position. He laid his thoughts open to her in an effort to quell any tension she might feel in anything she may have felt he was holding back. As he felt her awareness brush his he smiled slightly, she was doing just as he expected. It was an odd experience but one he had prepared himself to become used to.

"They put you through a lot when you got sent back here. It must have been torture." Robyn surmised as she probed Boris' memory.

Boris shook his head, "Being questioned twenty hours a day, sometimes connected to lie detector tests and under the influence of sodium pentothal for over four weeks could be considered torture but it was necessary."

"It seems a little extreme but I guess they can't be too careful. Elias was quite high up in the Network wasn't he?"

"He was and his involvement with Lily has sent shockwaves through the entire Network. It was always believed that we were impenetrable to her influence but now it's been brought home that no one is safe. Your mother has a great many allies in any number of guises and places. We might never find them all and to question every member of the Network as thoroughly as I was would be impossible. But, we're digressing. I've come to speak with you about what you might choose to do."

"Do?"

"About whether you would wish to stay here or return home. I have spoken with the Heroes' Council and they are willing to allow you to remain here as they have voiced concerns about your presence in Lazytown. Though Lily herself isn't on the Island and we are almost certain that would never be brazen enough to return here under her own volition we can't guarantee that you'd be one hundred percent safe but you could live without constantly looking over your shoulder. You wouldn't need the same level of protection and would be able to live with more freedom."

Robyn tilted her head, "And if Grumpy lets me go back?"

"I will escort you. I'm due to transfer to Lazytown in three days. Your grandfather cannot keep you here against your will though he is granted first refusal and will have the power to levy strict stipulations regarding your return if you decide to go back. I know you're whole life is in Lazytown and I wouldn't expect you to make a decision straight away. It might not seem like a long time but I can give you three days and I must make it clear to you that whatever decision you make must be yours and made for you alone. Langford tells me that your family are concerned for you but they are willing to accept whatever decision you make."

"I miss them," Robyn sighed softly.

"Then perhaps this might help." Boris smiled understandingly as he handed Robyn the laptop bag he had been carrying with him when he'd arrived.

"I don't understand."

"Pixel has offered to lend Kit one of his laptop computers. This is set up with that web chat program as is Pixel's laptop. All I have to do is contact Langford and let him know when you'll be going on and he can get Kit to log in. Talk to your family; let them know how you are. They'll feel better if they know you're ok. It might not make the choice you have to make any easier but on the other side of that perhaps Nine would assent to taking you on a tour of the Island and show you the sights. At least if you do decide to return to Lazytown you'll have at least gotten an idea of your ancestral homeland."

"From what I've seen so far it's a beautiful place. I'd like to see more of it and learn more about my ancestors. Sportacus never told me much about the other numbers."

"That surprises me yet he never knew much of his grandfather," Nine said as he entered the room. "Eight, his grandfather and my father was a formidable man but not without good reason."

Boris nodded, "I heard a lot about him. He was one of the pinnacle heroes; they still speak of him in the Network training halls. They speak of all of you, every Sportacus. Your family is well respected, there hasn't been a family before or since yours that has had a hero in every generation. Many follow the examples set by your family over our Island's history and have adhered to the principles laid out by you. It's an honour to meet you, sir."

Nine shook Boris' hand, smiling at the evident hero worship taking place. It was refreshing to hear that his family was still spoken of though since Lily had placed a scourge on his family name he wondered if everything that was said about them was still good. He released Boris' hand and walked over to Robyn.

"I never dreamt I would ever enter this house," Boris mused as he surveyed his surroundings, "There's so much history here. Ten generations born here, eight died here. Each father bringing his children into the world with his own hands. It's breathtaking."

Robyn had never heard this before, she'd never been aware of this part of her family's history and she looked about her as well. She'd entered this room purely by chance; every wall was filled with photographs of Sportacus' of every generation since photography had been invented. Painted portraits stood in place of those that couldn't be photographed, their numbers all displayed proudly on their chests from one to ten. Each bore eyes as blue as the azure sky above and they all wore facial hair of varying descriptions. Robyn looked at the photograph of her Uncle and smiled at the sight of the moustache she had always known him to wear, one that she realised was reminiscent of her great great grandfather number seven. She almost giggled when she looked at Nine's photo; it looked as though he had never changed the length of his beard or been without it. He was just as she remembered seeing him in her vision of playing the game with Lily, to her surprise when she looked at the man himself his muscle tone was just the same as it had always been.

"Robyn, why don't you go and set up that contraption in the kitchen? I want a minute with Boris before he leaves." Nine suggested pointing to the laptop case.

Robyn did as she was bid and left the room. She heard Nine close the door behind her as she entered the kitchen and saw her grandmother sitting at the table. As she took the laptop from its case she smiled as her grandmother sat closer to her to study it.

"How does this thing work?" Yuliya asked as Robyn unfolded the laptop and turned it on.

"It's kind of complicated to explain, grandma. I could do a web search for something that tells you."

"Web search? Oh, on that thing I've heard someone talk about. Goggle? Oggle? Oogle?"

"Google." Robyn laughed.

"Close enough I suppose." Yuliya shrugged with a slight smile, "Do you have one of these devices at home?"

"No we don't have one. Pixel's really the only one with a computer and who knows everything about them. We're not entirely modern back home, not like some places. It's nice though I think, we're in no hurry to go kicking and screaming into the twenty first century even though I suppose Pixel would rather we were."

"At least I don't have to feel too old. Do you have one of those small telephones you can put in your pocket and send those little messages with?"

"Not me personally but some of my friends do. You and Grumpy really aren't up to date with modern technology are you?"

"It depends what you consider modern technology. Your grandfather still thinks his airship is a technological marvel even though it was nothing compared to Sportacus' with its talking computer and automated systems or Ché's with his satteltite naggitation thing."

Robyn suppressed an urge to giggle at her grandmother's pronunciation but couldn't keep herself from smiling, "I think you mean satellite navigation."

"Oh I don't know." Laughed Yuliya as she shook her head, "Your grandfather doesn't believe in all these little things to make life easier. He feels they make people lazy but between you and me I think they do help a little."

Robyn's eyes twinkled as she put a finger to her lips; it was her and her grandmother's little secret.


	20. Chapter 20

Just as the web chat program loaded on the laptop, Robyn realised she needed the call of nature. She'd signed in on the off chance that Kit might be online waiting for her but it said that his computer was offline. Before she got up she typed a brief message to him and excused herself from the kitchen.

Curious about the machine in front of her, Yuliya swapped seats and read the message that Robyn had written. She smiled at its simplicity until a sound came from somewhere inside the machine and the screen changed slightly. Words appeared under Robyn's message and the machine made a sound like a telephone. Unsure of what to do Yuliya looked over her shoulder hoping that Robyn would come back soon. The noise from the machine continued and she read the message on the screen again.

'_Kit would like to start a video chat with you. Press ok or enter to accept.'_

"Enter or ok," Yuliya whispered as she scanned the keyboard for the right button.

Finally finding the button marked 'enter' Yuliya pushed it tentatively and jumped when the screen changed again, the words on screen being replaced by a moving picture of a young man with a broad grin. She recognised him having met him before and smiled back at him.

"Whoa Robs, you've aged! Does time move faster there or is Nine just majorly stressing you out?" The young man on the screen laughed.

Yuliya's smile faded and she raised an eyebrow at him. Her smile returned when half of a very familiar face appeared on screen and a hand swiped at the back of the young man's head.

"Thank you son," She smiled as the picture on screen adjusted and she saw three men looking at her. "I was just about to look at a button that would make something do that for me."

Sportacus smiled back at his mother, "You're welcome. I apologise for Kit."

"What's he done now?" Robyn queried as she came back into the kitchen and sat next to her grandmother.

"Oh look! Twins!" Kit exclaimed trying to distract everyone from his joke.

Robbie and Sportacus both turned to look at Kit while Yuliya and Robyn sat back a little with their eyebrows raised.

Robyn narrowed her eyes as she leant forward and focussed on Kit, "What are you trying to say?"

Yuliya nodded as she looked at Robyn, "Yes, what is he trying to say? That we both look old? I mean when he appeared on this thing he did think I was you."

"Did he now?" Robyn replied pursing her lips at Kit and turning her head to look at her grandmother.

Kit's mouth flapped open and closed as he tried to find a suitable answer and way out of the hole he'd dug himself into. When one didn't seem forthcoming Robbie disappeared from the screen for a few seconds before reappearing with something in his hands.

"Shovel?" He asked as he handed the implement over to Kit with a chuckle.

Sportacus laughed and rolled his eyes as Kit looked blankly at the shovel before getting the joke.

Robyn rolled her eyes also as she looked at her grandmother, "This is what I have to live with."

"It's not so bad," Kit piped up as he finally found his voice again, "And with the twins thing I was trying to say you both look young and sexy."

"Who looks young and sexy?" Nine enquired as he entered the kitchen.

"Oh boy." Kit murmured as he lifted the blade of the shovel and head butted the flat side of it, making a clang as he did so.

Nine leant over Robyn and his wife as he looked at the screen and watched Kit stand and make his escape. Part of him wished it was possible to reach through the screen and pull him back but he made do with the alternative of stern words with him when they came face to face in person next.

Robyn looked from the screen to her grandfather, "Can I maybe have just a little bit of privacy."

Nine leaned back and looked at the ceiling, scratching his bearded chin. "Privacy? Privacy? Now what does that word mean?"

"I'll remember that next time I walk past the bathroom and you're in there peeing with the door wide open." Robyn replied shaking her head.

Robbie and Sportacus started to laugh while Robyn and Yuliya laughed and shared a discreet high five. Nine turned around and folded his arms when he heard someone else laughing from outside of the room.

Boris halted laughing and cleared his throat before waving and leaving.

Yuliya blew a kiss to her son before getting up and guiding Nine out of the room. Robyn watched them go and turned back to the screen when her grandmother closed the door.

"Hey kiddo." Robbie beamed at Robyn.

"Hi daddy. How are things?"

Robbie looked at Sportacus and shrugged, "Quiet. We've missed you, your uncle and me."

Robyn reacted to the word uncle and both men caught it. They smiled at her gently.

"Kit worked it out." Sportacus explained, "We had a brief discussion about what happened with you two."

"Am I in trouble?"

Robbie and Sportacus looked at one another, they both nodded when they turned back to Robyn.

"If you come home you're grounded for the next twenty five years and Kit is moving in with Sportacus when he gets his new airship while we're packing you off to a convent." Robbie scolded.

Robyn looked shocked at the stony expressions on both men's faces before their faces crumpled and they chuckled.

"Syke!" They shouted in unison causing Robyn to stick her tongue out at them.

Sportacus sobered and he concentrated his piercing blue eyes on Robyn, "We're not ok with what happened but we can live with it. We both kind of figured it was going to happen sooner or later and letting you share a bed was maybe just adding to the temptation. We also have to accept that you kids do things differently to us and we can hardly talk seeing as neither of us was married when we...you know."

"Slept together?" Robyn cut in with a large mischievous smile.

Sportacus couldn't help but admit he'd walked right into that one and he looked apologetically at Robbie who gagged at the thought of being anywhere near to physically intimate with Sportacus.

Kit came back on screen with a confused expression having missed the recent exchange but smiled when he saw Robyn.

"Langford filled me in on what the boss man told you. You've got three days thinking time Robs. Don't think about us when you make your decision about whether to come home or not. It's your choice and your choice entirely, whatever you choose we'll always love you and we're sure we can come and visit. While I was talking to Langford someone came over and asked if they could talk to you."

Robyn saw the screen shift as the laptop was lifted up and she watched the room slide across the screen as it was moved.

When it became still she saw Bessie in front of the camera.


	21. Chapter 21

Stretched out on the bed with his eyes closed he tried to make it look as though he were asleep. It was the only way he could think without being disturbed. Seeing Robyn being dragged away by their grandfather had made him angry but as the Network officers had grabbed him and shoved him to the ground he had squashed that anger. His mind at that moment had turned to the tattoo on his right arm, the saying that had spared him many times but seemed to mean so little now.

'_If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.'_

It was his sincerest doubt that he had a hundred more days left to live. Langford had come to see him after his brief conversation with Kit. A date had been set for his extraction from Lazytown.

A team was coming to take him within seven days.

He had accepted long ago that he would be taken from this place and face the punishment he deserved for his crimes but it seemed that they were making him wait. Perhaps they were testing him, trying to see if his mother would come for him. See if he would rejoin her. Perhaps they were trying to see if they could break him down. He had remained submissive, obedient. Grateful to his hosts he had helped them around the house but even though they conversed with him and seemed comfortable to sit with him he knew that it would be a different situation were they to be alone with him unguarded.

More than once the woman with pink hair had come across him. Her hostility towards him hadn't waivered and seemed to grow the calmer he remained in the face of it. Deep within himself he fought the urge to live up to her expectations of him but his need for Robyn's approval prevented him regardless of what was coming in the next five days.

It was the pink woman's voice he heard now; she was here with some of her friends. People he had seen staring at him, keeping their distance. He heard the front door being opened and two new voices. One of which belonged to his sister's fiancé, the other to the man in the stripy suit he had seen.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway, keeping his eyes closed he listened as the door opened and someone entered. They seemed to be waiting for him to respond to their presence. He wondered for a minute if his ruse was see through but feeling a hand touch his shoulder he could tell it was not.

Slowly opening his eyes he focussed them and saw Kit standing above him.

Never being one to find herself short of words, Bessie struggled to find the right start to what she knew would be a difficult conversation. Her and Robyn hadn't spoken since she had handed the girl the results of her paternity test and every scenario she had generated in her mind of trying to reconcile with her fell flat as they looked at each other through the computer screen.

"It's hard isn't it?" Robyn's said at last, making the first move. "We've known each other for the best part of twenty two years, my whole life and we don't know what to say to one another. But what can you say to someone you trusted implicitly? Someone you viewed as a mother figure in the absence of either parent who in the midst of their own self interest sacrificed that relationship. What can you say to someone you loved and looked up to, never thinking that they'd hide something like that from you. What possible justification could they have for trying to string people along as if they were in a great puppet show and lying to their face?"

Bessie couldn't identify the emotion the words were spoken with but they stung nonetheless, she made to speak but Robyn interrupted her.

"You had your own reasons for keeping those results from me. I don't know what your motivation was but you had no right to interfere. You should have handed me those results in the hospital. I know you had them there. To think you looked me in the face and told me you didn't know why Lily attacked you. I should have known otherwise. Why did you do it Bessie?"

"I never hated you," Bessie protested in earnest, "Things seemed to be fixing themselves between you and Sportacus. You seemed like you were getting past things. If those results weren't what you wanted I did want it to destroy what you'd rebuilt."

"And keeping the truth from me was better was it? Everything I'd ever believed in was taken away the second you pulled those results out of your pocket. I thought I'd found myself again after all the shit, I thought I'd got better after all the time spent at that clinic and getting my head straight and you made me lose myself again. I still don't know if I even know who I am anymore. I'm not Robbie's daughter, I'm not Sportacus' daughter and all I have is the knowledge that I'm the daughter of that despicable whore. What does that make me? Who am I?"

Robyn felt a pair of hands press on her shoulders as she felt the scrape of a beard at her ear, the words whispered into it leant her an unexpected measure of comfort.

"You're my granddaughter."

Kit smiled at Morgan and was greeted with a slight nod in return. He'd wondered how the man would take being woken up but he'd tried to do it as gently as possible. There was no telling how he would have reacted had he been woken up in a manner he considered rude.

"Sorry to wake you. I just thought I'd let you know we've spoken to Robyn. She's ok. The powers have be over that end have given her three days to work out whether she wants to come home or not. We're not sure which way she's going to go yet, we're hoping she stays where it's safer for her." Kit updated Morgan.

"Whether or not she comes back or remains there I'm sure our paths will cross again."

"What do you mean?" Kit asked, not sure he liked the sound of the answer that would come.

Bessie closed the lid of the laptop and set it on the table in front of her. Her heart beat a little easier now she had been able to voice her regret at her actions but she knew that though they had made amends hers and Robyn's relationship would never be quite the same as it had been. She was glad that she had been able to speak with her and go some way to clearing the air in the eventuality that she decided not to come home. Not seeing Robyn in person or sharing their late night chats over cocoa ever again would be hard but she at least had the consolation that modern technology would enable them to remain in contact.

As Kit sat down at the table in the Mayor's kitchen he couldn't quite get his head around what Morgan had told him or how calm he seemed in the face of what was coming. His friends looked at him with questioning expressions as he ran his hand through his short hair and sighed while shaking his head.

"What is it?" Robbie asked as he lay a hand on Kit's shoulder.

Kit looked up, his eyes meeting the faces of Trixie, Stingy, Ziggy, Pixel, Stephanie and the Mayor. They all looked at him worried that something had occurred in the room with Morgan. Stephanie's face began to turn pink with anger as she went to stand and confront Morgan for what she imagined he might have done but Kit's words stopped her in her tracks.

"They're going to hang him."

Mayor Meanswell nodded as several of the others shook their heads in disbelief, "Bessie told me, Morgan told her that Langford had come to see him and told him what was going to happen. He came earlier and told Morgan that in five days people are going to come and take him away. I think it's rather sad, he seems like such a nice boy underneath it all."

This last comment made Morgan's guards look at each other and caused a stir amongst the permanent residents of Lazytown.

Stingy scoffed at the Mayor's remark and made one of his own, "Nice boy or not I hope where they take him they have a good priest because the only salvation he'll get is the knot on his noose breaking his neck and killing him instantly. Though I doubt he deserves less than choking slowly to death while he dangles."

"Stingy!" The Mayor exclaimed in outrage.

Had he not detected motion in the hallway and allowed his eyes to follow it he would have said more than he had but as he felt the blood drain from his face and a lump build in his throat he remained silent as the dark blue eyes of the one he had spoken of burned into him.

Morgan had heard every word.


	22. Chapter 22

Tension in the room rose to fever pitch as all eyes turned in the direction that Stingy was staring. They were sure they could hear his heart hammering in his chest as Morgan came closer to them. His guards prepared themselves to move into a defensive position and evacuate the house as they kept a close watch on his movements. Two of the Network officers instinctively felt for their weapons. They were ready to draw them out in the event that they became required. One of the remaining officers discreetly pressed a button on his belt that would send an alert through the ear pieces of his colleagues, warning them that back up was likely to be needed.

As Morgan neared the table something unexpected occurred. He stopped by the kitchen counter, his eyes still glued on Stingy. Rather than the blank image that served as the cover for all of his emotions his face began to alter. The large, dark eyes that held so many secrets seemed to lighten slightly as his expressive lips twisted and parted into a large smile.

Stingy didn't know what was scarier, Morgan coming slowly towards him with intentions unclear or standing still and smiling at him. It was a smile that seemed as though it would invite him to let his guard down, a smile that dared him to smile back and face the consequences.

Ignoring the potential danger, Kit stood slowly and moved himself between Morgan and Stingy. Breaking the line of sight between the two he became intensely conscious of Morgan's eyes changing and the smile fading perceptively. Silently citing his intentions he took a step forward towards Morgan, all the while keeping his body language neutral.

Morgan breathed deeply as he observed Kit and with his hand he bade the man calm, "It's alright. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Every action we take whether good or bad is open to judgement by someone. By rights I am a bad person that has done bad things, I wouldn't deny that. If indeed the knot doesn't snap my neck when they hang me I'll suffer a death slower than the one I granted my victims. Would anything less than a slow death be penance enough for my crimes?"

It was a question that hung in the air as Morgan turned and walked back to his bedroom. Kit breathed an imperceptible sigh of relief and looked to Stingy whose eyes were levelled to a space beneath the table. His cheeks inflamed and his shoulders sagging.

"I think I've wet myself." Stingy mumbled as his friends began to detect an unpleasant odour and became aware of the puddle that had formed at the foot of his chair.

A sudden shift in the movements of Langford's men caught Sportacus' attention as he gazed out of the kitchen window. They seemed to move in a singular direction, the direction of the Mayor's house. He moved from the kitchen to the living room as he followed their movements. Bessie stood up at his entrance and tried to see what he was seeing but from the angle he was at her vision was obscured.

One of the men broke off from their journey towards the Mayor's house and approached having seen him standing in the window. They let themselves in and told Sportacus and Bessie to remain calm and remain where they were.

As Langford joined the team that had circled the Mayor's house he waited for the second signal. His men were ready to do what was needed and they stood poised for the sound to come through their ear pieces. A faint flicker of sound, an echo in their memories played with their ears and tried to trick them into believing the second signal had come but they ignored it.

They weren't needed yet.

A voice came over the radio sounding the all clear. Crisis had been averted and Langford stepped out from his position and signalled for his men to return to their duties but remain alert just in case. Fulfilling his obligation to investigate any cause of alarm he walked around the house and entered the front door just as a very embarrassed Stingy ambled past him, a strong smell hanging in the air in his wake. Langford allowed himself to follow Stingy with his eyes briefly before turning back and facing his men.

"Report." He ordered.

One of Langford's men quickly did as he'd been asked, "Morgan overheard something Stingy said. It was something of a sensitive nature and we weren't quite sure how he'd react. I thought I'd sound the alert just in case. Fortunately Morgan stayed calm and made no further move, he just sort of smiled."

"Smiled?" Langford paraphrased incredulously.

"Yes sir, that was all he did until Kit got in between him and Stingy."

For his credit, Kit looked bashful when Langford shifted his attention to him. He could see Langford was brewing for a hissy fit beneath that glossy surface of calm. He kept quiet as he doubted what might set Langford off.

There was a slight tone of interrogation when Langford addressed Kit, "You got in between Morgan and Stingy? You really do have a brass neck don't you?"

"Well someone had to do something. He didn't do anything anyway."

"And if he had? What if he'd gone for you?"

Kit shrugged, "I could have handled him...I think. I took on Lily and won, after a fashion. I was doing alright until she tricked kicking my go nads through my arsehole. Although shitting blood for a fortnight was worth the satisfaction of flooring the bitch."

"I don't doubt it was but taking on Lily and beating her once doesn't mean it's something you could pull off a second time. I also recall hearing that you and Cain had one or two bust ups which you obviously survived. That doesn't mean that you'll naturally win every time and we know next to nothing about Morgan. May I suggest that this cavalier attitude you have about getting in scraps stops and stops now? For someone with a background like yours it's highly obvious to me that you've been living on borrowed time for much of your life and now doesn't seem like a good time to start throwing it away."

Langford had struck a cord with Kit and the clown looked down, defeated.


	23. Chapter 23

It was cold outside but it didn't bother her. High up on the roof of the house she could see for miles in every direction. She marvelled at the stars twinkling above her in the cloudless sky, the moon shining large and bright. It seemed so low it felt as though she could reach out and touch it with her fingers. With a big enough jump she could walk upon its dusty surface and dance amongst the dust thrown up by her footsteps. As it began to rise and give way to the sun she could float down a moon beam and land safely back on earth. Back on the roof she was sitting or back home in a place she belonged, back in the only place she truly belonged.

If she could float among the stars her problems would seem a million miles away. Nothing would matter as she felt warmed by their fiery glow. She wouldn't be angry or saddened by someone that had let her down; someone that she had made amends with. They had opened her eyes, the vision too painful to understand at first but it seemed to make sense.

Someone came to sit beside her. She didn't need to look to see who it was or ask to know why he was there. He too stared up at the stars and bathed in the pure light cast by the moon. All around him lay his history, his homeland. Beneath him his heritage. Above him his destiny.

"You've found my favourite thinking spot." Nine spoke softly as he looked over at his granddaughter.

Robyn's eyes left the moon and brushed the stars, "I can see why it's your favourite. I could get used to this."

"You could?" Nine asked, not expecting the response he was given. "I wouldn't have thought you'd considered anything less than returning to Lazytown."

"I have to admit there's something alluring about not having to be guarded all the time, followed everywhere by one or two escorts and always under watch. I feel safe here."

"You would be safer here. Lily would never think to come back here."

Robyn shook her head, "I wouldn't be so sure. If she could trick everyone into believing she was Ellen she can do it again. I know you don't understand but I have to go back."

"You must stay."

"As a hero, when someone's in trouble you put yourself directly in the line of danger to save them and stop them from getting hurt. You don't simply choose not to save someone regardless of what anyone else would do. I'm not a hero but I can't consider my safety above that of the people I love. If I die I'm only doing what every hero that has come out of this house has dedicated their lives to."

Nine drew his cheeks back as he considered his granddaughter. He placed a hand on her back and rubbed it before getting up and climbing from the roof. Shortly after he returned with a blanket in his hands that he unfolded and wrapped around Robyn's shoulders. He kissed her on the temple before once more climbing from the roof.

Though Nine had gone, Robyn was not entirely alone. She became aware of two spirits sitting with her on the roof. As she viewed them they appeared to be very familiar. One had a moustache identical to the one her Uncle had worn, he wore a hero uniform and upon his chest was a raised seven. The other was clean shaven and his number was eight.

Despite being father and son, the two spirits seemed reluctant to look at one another. They were sat either side of her as if trying to deliberately keep their distance from each other. A flurry of mixed emotions from them assaulted Robyn as she brought herself to understand the cause of the rift between them.

Eight seemed to be staring off into space, he was sat rigid with his back straight and his shoulders back. His eyes held a coolness surpassing that which she had seen in Nine's at his angriest times. Every now and again he would pass his eyes over Robyn before turning back to fix them on the spot that held his vision so.

"You look too much like _her_." Eight growled after another glance at Robyn, "Part of me wishes I'd have stayed alive long enough to see her born so I could have stopped her being what she is."

"Grandma was heavily pregnant with Lily when you died." Robyn commented, drawing on the memory of her great grandfather, "You were in your chair in the lounge, you felt very tired. Sportacus came in, he was only five, you took him up on your lap and told him a story before you fell asleep. Nine found you both didn't he?"

Eight nodded. As he had left his body and begun his journey through the Elysian fields he had seen his son entering the room, walking slowly towards him as he said his name. Repeating it as he came closer until realising he wouldn't gain a response. His son gently taking his grandson from his arms and carrying him from the room as he passed through the gates of the house of Ais.

Another memory filled Robyn's mind as she looked from Seven to Eight. "You weren't much older than Sportacus when your father died. You were ten years old."

Being reminded of this made Eight angry as he finally looked at his father, Seven. The memory was a painful one and one that had always stirred powerful emotions within him. It was what made him the man he'd been.

It all seemed to click together as Robyn drew on both men's memories. She looked at Seven, his countenance was a polar opposite to that of Eight and Nine. He was much more laid back, a sense of adventure filling his stomach with an excitement for new things that would never be sated, even in death. That insatiable desire had ultimately been the thing to lead to his demise.

Robyn's voice seemed to hold a far away quality as she recounted what happened. "You were in your airship. It had just been upgraded and you couldn't wait to try out the latest invention, the sky chaser. You released it and ran to jump on it but somehow you miscalculated and you jumped too far. You tried to grab for it but it wasn't enough and you fell. The fall didn't kill you, you hit the ground with such force but you lived long enough for them to bring you back here. You died almost the moment they carried you over the threshold."

Despite the traumatic nature of his death, Seven smiled and seemed strangely upbeat as he spoke. "I would have loved a second chance at that. I'm sure I could have done it right the next time."

"You never forgave him did you?" Robyn asked looking to Eight. "You spent so much of your life being angry at him for a simple accident that it impacted on your son. Nine is so strangled by how you viewed the world that he can never truly let go and have fun. You never spoke of his grandfather, not once."

"He was reckless!" Eight exclaimed looking at Robyn before switching his eyes and his anger to Seven, "You were always reckless! Even now you don't seem to care what happened. Ten does things almost exactly as you did. It's a wonder he's lived this long!"

Pride seemed to swell Seven's chest at hearing how his great grandson acted with the same flair that he did. Eight quieted and rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms and let out a large huff.

"Neither of you have been able to move on because you're both held back by the same thing. You need to make amends and seal the rift between you." Robyn felt as though she were talking to children as scolded them. Their emotions told her far more than they were telling each other and she was getting fed up.

Eight's brow was almost touching his nose when he slid his eyes sideways to view Robyn, "How do we do that exactly?"

"We just need to talk to each other." Seven replied shifting his body so it was turned more openly to Eight, "I never got to say how proud I am of you and how sorry I was that I made such a stupid mistake. I was always overconfident, it was one of my biggest faults and I can readily see that now even though it's much too late. My biggest regret is how I never got to see you grow up properly. You were a fine man and a greater hero."

"You were a good hero too. I always used to watch what you did and hoped that one day I could be like you." Eight dropped his arms and straightened his back again, "After you died, Six taught me how to be a hero. My grandfather teaching me what my father should have taught me. I grew to resent you and I accept I was too hard on Nine but I never wanted another hero in this family to suffer as I did. I loved you and you were taken from us too soon. Your self pride and your ego did that."

Seven levelled a devastatingly large smile at Eight, "You're only jealous because I had more style than you."

"You did. I accept that. Six was never one for flair; he never had quite the same...enthusiasm that you did."

"Perhaps not but he raised you well all the same." Seven smiled as he wrapped his arm around Robyn's shoulders, "And he's right, you do look a little too much like Lily but you act nothing like her. You're a good soul. Thank you for allowing us the chance to set right what we couldn't in life."

Eight only nodded as he faded into nothingness. Seven followed soon after, the feeling of his arm around her lingered for a while. In the silence of the night air around her she heard someone open the window below her and call her name. It was time to come inside and go to sleep.

Tomorrow she would be going home.


	24. Chapter 24

"Are you ready?"

It seemed like such a simple question but the answer seemed so much more complicated. It was more than a matter of saying yes or no. Each word had a path that lay before it, the intersection in her life that she had reached. Which answer was the right one? Which path was the right one to take? It had seemed so easy the night before, she'd made her decision and she'd been sure about that.

Unable to sleep that night she'd lay awake and heard someone pass the door to her bedroom. Seeing the outer edges of the bedroom door shine with light that crept across the carpet she knew that she wasn't the only one awake in the house.

She'd gotten out of bed and crept cautiously across the floor. Laying her hand on the handle she'd pushed it down gently and peered out to investigate the source of the light. It emanated from the living area, low bursts of sound accompanying its journey across the hallway.

Leaving her room she had crept towards the light, the low sounds growing slightly louder in the reduced proximity between her and them. Peeking around the wall she had viewed her grandfather, the source of the low sounds the sharp breaths he took and released as quiet sobs shook his body. He'd seemed entirely oblivious to her presence as he sat hunched over with his arms running the length of his thighs, his hands tightly knotted together. Unable to see any more she'd turned swiftly, pressing her back against the wall and resting her head against it. She couldn't escape the sounds he made as she crept back to her bedroom and slid beneath the covers.

At some point after she'd returned to bed she had woken up from a restless sleep to see the sun brushing the horizon through the window. Her mind had been filled with questions as she'd gotten up and left her bedroom. She'd met her grandmother in the hallway as she'd walked towards the bathroom and been advised her grandfather was in there. She'd followed her grandmother to the kitchen as the knock had sounded on the door. Her grandmother had looked at her as she'd gone to answer it and admitted Boris.

It had been he that had asked her the question.

She was struggling with her answer, he could see that. He had come as promised and had arrived at the house early though he was not eager to start the journey he had to make. It had seemed convenient for him to come at this time as he had to pass by here but there was little doubt in his mind that it was perhaps best to give her a little more time. He left her deep in thought as he turned to her grandmother and advised her that he would return in a few hours on completion of his errands.

As Nine gazed into the mirror in front of him he thought back to the night before. He'd been unable to sleep in the knowledge that this would be the day that his granddaughter would choose to leave him. To leave the safety of his home and return to one that would most certainly be the place in which she would die. He'd known she was there watching him as the walls he'd built around his emotions came tumbling down. Had she walked away because she'd been ashamed of seeing him so?

She'd not seen the photograph that had fallen from his fingers and stared up at him from the floor, the photograph of the young, innocent girl that had turned into a thing of unspeakable evil in the blink of an eye. He had to ask himself if she had ever truly been innocent. Had she ever truly been pure?

His daughter had slipped away from him as swiftly as humanity had slipped away from her. His granddaughter was a reminder to him of that which he had lost in his daughter. Even though some of the things she had done were to him undesirable she was everything his daughter had never been. She was a tortured soul that was full of kindness and love, playful and mischievous with a heart and body scarred by every injustice she had ever faced.

Splashing his face with water he looked in the mirror again, the droplets running down his face as the tears he had shed last night had done. Where he had only seen himself in the mirror before he had splashed the water in his face he could see her there behind him. She was watching his reflection as he watched hers. Grabbing a towel he dabbed at the water on his face and dried his skin, rubbing his bare chest and mopping up the water that had dripped from his face. He turned to face her as he replaced the towel and saw her eyes drop to the space above his diaphragm. They returned to meet his with a question that he answered verbally.

"She always claimed it was an accident. Admittedly I believed her until I was blinded by the illusion she shrouded herself with no longer. She'd come home late one night without warning or reason. I waited up for her in her bedroom and watched her climb in through the window. She'd looked at me as though it were the most normal thing in the world for her to do. There was no shame there at all when she passed by me to come in here. I waited for her to come out. She claimed she didn't see me when she bumped into me with the scissors in her hand. I'd kept the lights off so I didn't disturb her brother or your grandmother."

A faraway expression lent itself to Robyn's features as she felt something brush her perception, "It was the night after she punched grandma in the stomach and she lost the baby."

Nine closed his eyes against the resurgence of a memory he had tried to bury a long time before. Another accident as Lily had claimed. A loss of motor control following an argument she'd had with her mother. An argument caused by the jealousy of a child yet unborn. A child that was defenceless, barely developed before it fell victim to its sibling's cruelty.

He opened his eyes when he felt a hand brush his cheek, drawing him back to the present. His granddaughter had closed the distance between them and was looking up at him. He could feel something being drawn out of him as her hand rested upon his face.

Robyn's voice seemed to echo in his head as her lips parted and formed words, "She's taken so much from you. She's taken so much from hundreds of people. I have to go back. I have to stop her."

Nine grabbed Robyn's wrist softly as her hand left his face and she moved away from him, "You have to stay. I can't let you leave. I can't...I won't let her take you from me."

Tears slid from Robyn's eyes as she smiled at her grandfather weakly, "She's already taken a part of me."

His hand released her wrist as he watched her leave the room.


	25. Chapter 25

"Are you ready?"

The question she had been asked before asked of her again. This time she knew the answer. She felt her grandparents encircle their arms around her as she nodded. Boris smiled and made a sweeping motion with his arm in the direction of the front door and her future. Her grandparents reluctantly released her and she stepped forwards. Before she started on her journey she swung round and wrapped her arms around her grandfather's neck. He held her tightly, still unwilling to let her go. He ran his fingers through her hair before pressing his hands on her shoulders and pushing her back gently.

"It's not too late to change your mind. Stay with us." Nine almost pleaded.

Robyn smiled sadly as she shook her head, "I can't. I have to go back."

Yuliya brushed Robyn's cheek with the back of her hand before placing her lips upon it and forcing a smile. She held onto Nine's arm as their granddaughter walked away from them. Before he followed her, Boris approached Nine and shook his hand.

"I'll look after her." Boris vowed solemnly.

All too soon they were left alone.

Outside in the cool air she looked around her for the method of transport that would take her home but nothing was visible. Boris smiled at her confusion and raised his hand, his index finger extended. Tilting her head back as her eyes followed his finger she caught sight of the magnificent spectacle floating above her. Its body was of silver and blue, metal and glass combined beneath a blimp section that kept it effortlessly suspended in the air. Emblazoned on its side was a huge number ten against the back drop of her family emblem.

It was Sportacus' new airship.

As if sensing the intentions of the people below to ascend to it, the airship dropped its ladder. Robyn grasped hold of the rungs hanging before her and began to climb as she had done so many times in the past before the old airship had been destroyed. Nearing the top of the ladder she noticed the platform descend and she effortlessly transferred herself from the ladder onto it. Turning her attention downwards she watched Boris climb the ladder swiftly. When he too reached the platform it rose up and transported them the rest of the way into the airship.

Her breath caught in her throat as she looked around her. Despite the changes that had been made to both the exterior of the airship and the interior she felt a tide of memories wash over her. Every surface was shiny and new, each light ensconced in the walls and ceiling shone brightly against the minimalistic back drop of concealed compartments. What had been her home for fourteen years and suffered a terrible fate was now returned risen from the ashes.

Boris detected Robyn's hesitance to leave the circle in the floor that had been the platform, he turned to her and watched the emotions dancing across her face. Taking her hand he led her over to a portion of the wall that at the push of a button folded down into a seat. He pushed on her shoulders, signaling for her to sit down.

"Are you ok?" He asked sitting beside her.

Robyn looked first at the seat and then at Boris, "I guess so. It just feels so weird. I never thought I'd be back in one of these again. It's brought back a lot of memories that I'd almost forgotten about."

"It must be hard. Especially considering you lived in the last airship with your…." Boris trailed off, unsure of what word to use next.

"My Uncle, he is and always has been Uncle Sportacus. We spent so many years living together in the old airship, he raised me there. When I think back there were never any unhappy memories, not really unhappy ones. Every bad memory I have feels like it happened down on the ground. Nothing could touch me up here."

As he looked around him, Boris could understand what Robyn meant. High above the ground it felt as though he were impervious to anything below, floating in the air immune from the problems from the world beneath the rippling clouds. It held a certain appeal but his feet belonged firmly planted on whatever soil he was assigned to. That was how he had always viewed it when he had chosen the path of joining with the Network over becoming a hero.

Robyn broke from her thoughts when she felt a burgeoning flicker of a thought from Boris that she couldn't ignore. He had something to tell her.

"What is it?" He reacted to her question but she knew he'd been expecting her to ask.

He took both her hands in his as he replied, "I shouldn't be telling you this but I think you should know. A team known as the Red Tide is coming to take Morgan away from Lazytown. They're a special task force devised from the Red Team charged with the sole objective of hunting down and eliminating Lily. They're authorized to use deadly force and they're going to interrogate Morgan as I was interrogated before they make him face trial for his crimes. They notified Langford that they would be coming in five days but I discovered otherwise. They're going to Lazytown tomorrow, two days before they're expected to come. They want to catch him off guard so he can't escape them."

A frown creased Robyn's forehead as she absorbed what Boris had said. She'd known nothing of this and felt fear begin to claw at her stomach, fear for her brother, her savior from the twisted hands of the evil machinations of her demented mother. Her eyes communicated her desire as her mind reeled.

He picked up on the silent plea her eyes made to him and he stood. Walking over to the piloting console he pressed a panel on the floor with his foot and the air brake for the airship rose from a slot in the floor. He released it before climbing into the piloting section and began to pedal.

They were heading back to Lazytown.


	26. Chapter 26

Robbie was sat staring off into space when Kit descended the stairs into the lounge. He smiled at him and nodded at the man that followed quickly behind. It struck him that a great deal of time had elapsed since Sportacus had stayed overnight at the house. There had been a time when it had occurred frequently, especially during the harsh winters that swept over the town. It seemed odd that even weeks before the above average hero had been unwelcome in his home, barely spoken to or of without him feeling angry and resentful. Now all of that had been forgotten and it seemed like old times again. They were united as a family, as they'd always been before.

He was still trapped in his reverie when he felt someone stick a finger up his nose and he jumped violently. He swatted at Kit who had started laughing after recovering from the shock of the sudden movement he'd made and stared daggers at him.

"What the hell possessed you to do that?" He scolded ineffectually.

Kit shrugged and stopped laughing long enough to reply, "I was just trying to convince myself you were still with us. It was either sticking my finger up your nose or my willy in your ear hole. I kinda figured I'd try the finger up your nose first."

"Have you ever thought of simply saying someone's name or patting them on the shoulder to get a response?"

"Oh yeah, I never thought about that." Kit said with a large dollop of sarcasm before pulling a face at Robbie. "I did everything shy of giving you a kiss and saying 'morning sweetheart,' you were long gone."

"You were," Sportacus backed Kit up as he emerged from the kitchen skilfully holding three bowls.

Keeping a bowl for himself, Sportacus handed Robbie and Kit one. Once he sat down he looked at Robbie, "What were you thinking about anyway?"

"A bunch of stuff. I think I started at you being back here and ended up thinking about Robyn. I was trying to work out what life would be like if she didn't come back or what it would be like if she came back and something happened to her. Lily came so close last time."

"That's true but that time Robyn wasn't the target." Kit reminded Robbie, "You know there's something about that I still don't get. I swear that when Lily stabbed Robyn she was almost upset about it. I would have thought she'd have been jumping for joy."

Sportacus nodded as he remembered, he'd heard Lily's whispered words and seen her close her eyes tightly against what she'd done. It seemed so out of character for his sister, so different to what he'd come to expect from her.

Had her feelings towards Robyn changed? Times gone by she would have been happy, triumphant that she had done Robyn harm. She would have celebrated what she considered a victory in bringing Robyn to death's door. Why had she reacted the way she did?

As he gradually sunk deeper and deeper into thought Sportacus didn't see Kit stand up or hear him undo the zip on his jeans.

Langford was relaxing in the fair weather with a book as he sat on a bench near the sports field. It seemed rare for him to be 'off duty' these days, there was always something required his attention or needed a report written on it that he had to send to Headquarters. All was quiet around him when his ears were tweaked by a loud cry coming from one of the houses that was followed by hysterical laughter. Several crashes came after it before the front door of Robbie, Kit and Robyn's house flew open and Kit came sprinting out with Sportacus hot on his heels.

He had to admit that Kit was fast but he was no match for the hero who looked aggrieved by something as he gave chase. Forgetting his book for the moment and finding what was happening much more interesting to look at he silently egged on Sportacus to catch the clown. Though he liked Kit he found his practical jokes a little tiresome and it seemed rare that he would ever get his comeuppance.

Several of his men looked at him to see if they should intervene but before he could give them an order one way or another Sportacus leapt into the air and tackled Kit to the ground. Both tumbled one over the other until Kit landed on top of Sportacus, straddling him.

Kit tipped his head and looked to the side when he thought of something, "This seems oddly familiar but different somehow."

"I think last time I was on top of you." Sportacus reminisced.

"Oh yeah!" Kit grinned wickedly as his face lit up and he let out a very convincing evil genius laugh, "You don't have Ché to rescue you now!"

Sportacus almost couldn't believe his eyes when Kit leant over him and pursed his lips, sticking his tongue through them until a slow trickle of dribble came out and started to descend towards him. He tried to move his head away from the trail of spit getting closer and closer to him until he decided that it was now or never for him to make his move.

With expert ease Sportacus arched his body and pushed himself into a backward roll that threw Kit and his spit trail off of him. He quickly subdued Kit as he sat on the clown's back, pinning him to the ground. He waved at Langford who was slowly making his way over and applauding his victory.

"May I ask what brought this on or do I not want to know?" Langford asked light heartedly.

Kit laughed, "He was away with the fairies so I stuck my knob in his ear."

Langford shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as his shoulders moved and down with a poorly stifled chuckle. Sportacus nodded glumly and absently rubbed his ear before removing his hand from it and looking disdainfully at it, he was going to have to wash his hands and his ear out as soon as possible.

Seeing his chance now that Sportacus was distracted, Kit stretched his hands out in front of him and dug his toes into the ground. With a great deal of effort he pushed himself up as if doing a press up and Sportacus fell off of him. Kit regained his feet quickly and went to run away but not without stopping long enough to taunt Langford with gorilla noises and mooning him.

Now involved in the fray, Langford went from casual observer to full participant as he threw his book down and quickly pursued Kit. Pushing himself forward he relived his sporting days of old as he hunched down and caught Kit in a full on Rugby tackle, lifting him high into the air and flipping him around before they both crashed to the ground.

"Good move!" Sportacus exclaimed as he ran over and helped Langford to his feet.

Langford smiled and helped a slightly dazed Kit to get up, "Thanks, I used to play flanker in a Rugby squad back home. It's been a few years since I've done that."

A familiar look crossed Kit's face as a mischievous thought flashed through his mind, "Flanker? That rhymes with wa-"

Kit was stopped by Sportacus clapping a hand over his mouth as he caught onto what Kit was getting at. He drew his hand away quickly when he felt something warm and slimy brush his palm. A look of pure disgust and a strangled 'eew' left him as he watched a thin line of drool drip from his hand. Wrinkling his face up he looked for somewhere to wipe his hand when Langford winked at him and grabbed Kit by the shoulders, gesturing with his head to wipe his hand on Kit's face.

Kit tried to wriggle out from Langford's grasp as Sportacus wrestled with his conscience. Part of him told him to walk away and wash his hand like any civilised hero would do while another part cried out for revenge and the opportunity to get one up on his tormentor. It was that part he listened to as he moved his open hand towards Kit's squirming face.

"I leave you two alone for five minutes and look what happens. It's a good thing I decided to come back."

Sportacus whirled round at the sound of the familiar voice behind him as Kit opened his eyes and smiled broadly. Robyn was stood before them, hands on her hips with her eyebrow raised.

Langford released Kit and the clown rushed to Robyn, hugging her tightly before letting her go slightly and looking around to see how she'd got there. Robyn smiled and pointed upwards, making Kit and Sportacus both look above her head to what was floating in the sky above them.

As his ice blue eyes took in the sight of his new airship, Sportacus felt himself get a little choked up.


	27. Chapter 27

She stood before him, watching as he paced the room like a caged animal. She'd told him what she knew but it wasn't his nonchalance about his fate that surprised her. It was the way he seemed to accept it. It was the way he seemed to have given up. She couldn't understand how he could fight this hard to recover from a fight to stay alive only to roll over. It made as much sense to her as the distance he was trying to keep from her and the cold barrier she came across when she tried to get close to him.

Frustrated with the situation she tried one last appeal to break through to him, "So that's it? You're just going to let them take you?"

"I don't have a choice, Robyn. I am a killer, I've taken lives and for that I have to be punished."

"There has to be another way!"

Morgan faced away as he felt himself losing the battle with his temper, he clenched his teeth before he turned back. "This is the only way! Things are what they are and you can't change them. This bond or connection you think you have with me has to stop! You can't save me and you can't change me!"

"That won't stop me trying! I refuse to believe you're everything you make yourself out to be. You've killed, I know, I've seen you. But you helped me, you knew what Lily would do when you helped me but you helped me anyway. You went against your only ally in this world to help people you didn't even know. You're not all good but at the same time you're not all evil." Robyn moved close to Morgan as she added, "Like me."

He drew away from her as he paced once again until he turned his cold blue eyes upon her. "When do you think I first saw you? Do you think it was when I cleaved that Network man's head from his body?"

Something had changed in Morgan's tone as he spoke to her. Where he had always spoken to her in a soft voice there now existed a deep undercurrent, his words sharp and hard. Only knowing one answer she nodded. He corrected her when his shaking head told her she was wrong.

"It was before you boarded the airplane to Toronto. It was before you went to the airport. It was the night our dear Uncle provided you with the misconception that he was your father."

A knot formed in her stomach as she shook her head. It couldn't be true.

"I saw the whole thing. You spat in his face and walked away. You told him to drop dead and when his crystal went off he ran away. Cain saw it too. He was watching you and I was watching him."

She knew where this was going, she knew what he was going to say but like a runaway train there was no stopping the journey they were taking.

"Our dear brother was so intent on observing you that he had no awareness of my presence. He didn't even know I existed. I followed him when he got on that plane with you, I saw him walk past you. You were so grief stricken that you didn't notice him pass you by, he sat three rows back from you and you had no idea. Somehow you eventually realized that someone was following you, that he was following you. You turned around to face him in the alleyway. I saw the woman he killed see him following you there, a concerned bystander that got in the way. I remember seeing Cain slash your cheek just before the woman tried to defend you. She picked her timing well if she was planning on being suicidal that night. You tried to stop him and he slit your wrist. She was half dead and you still tried to stop him taking her, he was most disappointed when he had to suppress you. When he left you for dead it was only so he could tell mother what he'd done."

Her blood seemed to freeze in her veins as they drew ever closer to that fateful conclusion. The time when he told her what she most feared.

"I was impressed with his resourcefulness in getting you away from the protection of your undead friends. All of those people he slaughtered for the sole purpose of getting to you, the carnage of the flames and explosions. It was difficult to keep up with him as he carried you away but I managed."

She knotted her fingers in her hair as she tried to block his voice out with her hands over her ears but his words still broke through as if he were speaking directly into her brain.

"I was there when he touched you. I was there when he forced you onto the floor. I watched as he raped you and I did nothing to stop him."

There was more, there was something more he was going to say. She tried to turn away from him, she tried to run from him but he grabbed her and tore her hands from her ears. She fought against him as he pulled her back against his chest and clamped her arms to her sides. Her resolve shattered into a thousand pieces when she heard the three fateful words he spoke.

"I enjoyed it!"

He felt his feet go out from under him moments before he impacted with the wall behind him. As his vision cleared he saw her standing over him. His guards were moving towards him but were thrown back by an invisible force that slammed the door they'd flown through tightly. He heard their desperate shouts as they regained their feet and hammered on the door.

He did nothing to defend himself as she lifted him and threw him into the wall again. He felt her anger rain down upon him as she slapped and punched him. As her breathing became more ragged he felt the force behind her blows lessen and he sank to the floor with her, holding her to him as she wept.

Her energy gone she was able to hold the door closed no longer and they surged through it, stopping dead at the sight they saw. They'd heard her screams as she'd unleashed her pain turned to anger. Now they viewed her clinging to the source of that transition as he held her tightly, ignoring the hurt she'd inflicted on him.

Before they took her away Boris and Langford heard her whisper, "I know what you were trying to do."


	28. Chapter 28

What had just happened?

He'd been showing Sportacus around his new airship while Robyn had gone to talk with Morgan. Kit had opted to come with him and Langford and join the tour; they'd been laughing and talking about the new features once they'd gotten over the surprise of seeing him for the first time in months. He remembered what he'd said to Sportacus just before the emergency alert had sounded in his earpiece without a pre warning signal.

"Not that I think you would anyway but I really recommend you don't say shit. There's a bug in the voice system and the toilet's playing up big time."

At the sound of the alarm he'd almost leapt from the airship. He'd jumped down onto the platform, swinging himself onto the ladder and sliding down before releasing his grip. Landing on his feet he'd raced to the Mayor's house, quickly followed by his subordinate. Two of his men had pulled the owners of the house outside and they'd looked at him with shock as he ran past.

They could hear the screaming over the shouts of his men trying to force open the door. He'd moved them from it to try and shoulder barge the door, first alone then with help from Langford. He remembered turning from the impassible portal and ordering his men to get a battering ram from one of the utility vehicles. Given the order one of his men had reacted quickly sprinting off through the house and out into the crowd that pushed against the remainder of his men trying to keep them back.

He'd grabbed the battering ram being passed through the open window, his officer unable to reach the front door. Holding it firmly he'd pulled it back to swing it but stopped when the door swung open on its own. Langford had moved past him and he'd handed the battering ram over before joining him. They'd been brought to a halt by the sight of their charge on the floor, wrapped in the arms of him who'd they'd been guarding.

Him who they thought had been in the process of killing her.

He'd extended his weapon, flicking it sharply as he'd pulled it from his holster and held its tip at Morgan's chin. A clear warning had been given and he'd released Robyn without hesitation. Langford had pulled her away and out of the house. Morgan looked at him, his nose and lips bloody. He'd motioned for one of his men to clean up the mess as he joined Langford and Robyn.

What had just happened?

It wasn't how he'd pictured his first day back in the town that had once welcomed him as a representative of another leader. They seemed to spurn his presence as he walked among them, a representative of the betrayal of his leader and the caution they'd felt. He let Langford take Robyn home as he faced the accusing eyes searching him for answers.

He laid himself open to them as he gave them what they sought, "I'm the division team leader. When we were extracted from town after Elias' death I was arrested and questioned. I've been cleared of any involvement with Lily and authorized to take command."

They nodded their understanding and the Mayor shook his hand. He knew there was still an edge of mistrust in their faces but trust was something he knew he'd have to earn.

Robyn was on the defensive when Langford guided her through the front door of her home. He didn't know what had happened between her and Morgan but he knew that somehow she had assaulted his men. He shook his head, they weren't his men anymore.

Kit and Robbie followed behind him as he brought himself in front of where Robyn had sat herself down. His annoyance with her faded as soon as he caught sight of the look on her face. He'd expected her to be staring at him in the challenging way their eyes had often met but instead she seemed somewhat distracted. She clearly felt guilty about what she'd done. She didn't need him to give her a lecture and he stood up from the coffee table, leaving the house without a word.

The sofa shifted slightly as they sat either side of her. They took one of her hands each and held it in both of theirs. No words passed between them, even when Sportacus entered and perched on the arm of the sofa. Those men that loved her knew little of what had transpired at the Mayor's house but they each felt relieved that no harm had come to her.

Except that which she had inflicted upon herself in hurting her brother.


	29. Chapter 29

They were alone. Their companions had gone out in search of food for the evening, leaving them to talk but she hadn't said so much as a word since she'd been brought home. He knew there was more behind her silence. When he looked deep into her eyes it was if he could see the cogs within her brain ticking away in formulation of something. Something he knew couldn't be good.

Robbie shifted himself on the sofa and brought a hand to Robyn's cheek, turning her head so she was looking at him. "What are you thinking about? What's going on in there?"

"I have to help him escape. I can't let them take him."

If he had the power to rewind time or make the ground swallow him up he would have picked that very moment to get it to do so. He stood up and turned away from her. What had she just said? He was sure he must have imagined what she said, that it was just a trick of his ears. He'd heard her completely wrong and if he asked her to repeat herself it would come out as something totally different. She wouldn't mention even the least conventional notion of helping her murderous brother escape. A brother they now understood to have followed her all the while she was in Toronto and witnessed without remorse the evil she had had inflicted upon her.

Those that had been in the room when Morgan had launched his verbal attack on Robyn had relayed back to their leader what had been said. In turn Boris had come to speak to her about it but he had been greeted with the same unbroken silent state she had remained in until she'd broken that silence just now. Unable to reason with Robyn, Boris had told them what he knew.

Robbie turned back to look at Robyn, her eyes sliding upwards to meet his when she saw his movement in her peripheral vision. She was asking him the impossible, she wanted to do the impossible and she wanted his help. Before, after and since his death he had never denied her anything but he couldn't give her this.

He couldn't.

Needing to escape the longing in her eyes he walked away, going upstairs and sitting on the bed in the spare room. It was a bed he had slept in, in a room that had always ultimately been his. A room that he knew contained a chest filled with reminders of his past beneath the bed. He tried to turn his thoughts away from the direction they were taking but part of his old nature had never truly died. He recounted the words he had said on more than one occasion when he had lived beneath the ground in his lair, in the years before the small baby was dumped on his doorstep, when he'd been a villain.

'_It feels so good to be bad._'

If he helped Robyn was he being bad? Wasn't he ultimately saving a life? But at what cost?

Sighing deeply he eased himself onto the floor in a kneeling position, reaching his hand out under the bed for the chest. His searching fingers found its handle and he pulled it, sliding the chest towards him and over the fingers of his hand on the carpet.

"_Ouch_!" He cried, taking his hand out from under the chest and shaking it in hopes it would dull the throbbing in his fingers. Even though he was alone in the room he looked around him and straightened his waistcoat, "I meant to do that."

When he felt he could move his fingers without pain again he gingerly pulled the chest the remainder of the way out from under the bed. It was covered in dust and he blew it off before sneezing violently. In the back of his mind he knew these things had to be a sign that he was doing the wrong thing, that he shouldn't be doing this at all. Temptation drew him on as he lifted the lid of the chest and looked inside.

So many memories. So many evil deeds born from a desire to remove from town the one who had become one of his closest friends. Each item was a tool he had used to help achieve that plan. Each one had failed miserably. He'd always thought he'd been good at being bad but when he looked at things now he realised he was better at being good.

'_So why am I looking at this stuff now?'_ He thought to himself.

He went to close the lid but something caught his eye. It was his most recently used invention. One he had used for the purpose of good, switching its original purpose from that of evil. He reached into the box for it and lifted it out. If he was going to help Robyn it was one of the best things he could give her.

Left alone with her thoughts she sat with her head rested on the back of the orange fuzzy chair. With its recliner function it was the most comfortable chair in the house and rarely unoccupied. It also offered a direct view of the stairs and anyone going up or down them. It was one such benefit she took advantage of when the stairs creaked as her 'daddy' descended them. As their eyes met she could see him fighting a private battle with himself, a side she had only learned of since his resurrection coming to the fore.

He came to a stop in front of her, sighing heavily. "If you're going to help Morgan you're going to have to get past those guards of his. This should do the trick."

Robyn took the purple ball he held out to her. A faint memory drew itself to her as she brushed its rubber surface. As soon as she took it from his hand he turned away from her.

As he walked back up the stairs she heard him say, "I had tunnels all over Lazytown. Some of them should still be useable. One even goes as far as Crazytown, it can be got to via another tunnel the entrance of which is beneath the mail box near the Mayor's house."

She hugged the purple ball close to her as she tried to work out what to do.


	30. Chapter 30

Dawn came and with it she rose. Kit was sleeping beside her and she slipped from the bed. Moving swiftly she picked up the bag of clothes she'd hidden beneath her side of the bed and left the room. Careful of the squeaky parts of the stairs she descended them swiftly and silently. As she reached the bottom she realised she wasn't the only person in the house awake.

She was being watched.

Coming to a stop by Robbie's chair she sat on the arm of it and put a hand on his cheek, "I know how hard this is for you but I have to do it. Whatever happens, whatever comes out of this I'll tell them I worked alone."

He reached for her hand but she drew it away and disappeared. He couldn't stop her, he knew that but he wasn't sure he could accept what she was doing or the part he played in it regardless of what she'd promised. There was nothing he could do except sit back and allow things to happen. They'd find their own outcome and all that remained was for Robyn to follow the impulses guiding her.

He just hoped that whatever happened she would be safe.

Using her senses she reached out and located each Network officer as they carried out their patrols. There were eight officers on patrol, four others guarding Morgan. Several times she came close to being spotted as she ducked behind walls, edging around them as she made her way towards her goal. She looked up as if expecting to see her Uncle, cursing herself for not considering his vantage point. He would be awake soon if he wasn't already.

As her eyes remained glued to the airship she almost missed the presence of the small terrier that had seen her and waddled over to greet her. Hearing his snuffling she looked down, shaking her head at him. He let out a gruff snort before carrying on his way.

There was a break in the Network's patrol pattern and she took full advantage of it. Keeping low to the ground she quickly crossed the distance to the Mayor's house and peeped through the window. All four of Morgan's guards were seated at the kitchen table, the Mayor and Bessie were asleep in their bedroom. She could feel Morgan starting to wake up.

It was time for her to act.

Staying within the bushes she kept herself low and moved towards the front door. Reaching into the bag she carried she pulled out some ear plugs and pushed the button on the purple ball Robbie had given her, activating its sleepy song. Carefully she edged the front door open and rolled the ball inside. All of the Network officers within the Mayor's house fell asleep within seconds of hearing the noisy ball's melody. As long as it played they would remain that way.

Stealing her chance, Robyn snuck inside and closed the door just as one of the patrols came past the house. She held her breath as she leaned against the door in fear that they'd seen her but they passed by.

Moving through the house she made her way to Morgan's bedroom. He was still awake when she entered the room, his face a picture of surprise at her presence. She closed the door quickly so that the song of the noisy ball didn't reach his ears and render him unconscious, for what she was going to do she needed him awake.

Throwing Morgan the bag she gestured for him to open it, "Put these on. They're Kit's but they should fit you."

"Kit's clothes? Why do I need these? Why are you here after what I told you yesterday?"

"Regardless of what you said or what you did, I don't want to see you die. Whether you think you deserve to or not I owe you my life. You saved Kit's life when you brought me back here after telling me Lily's plan and you saved mine when Elias tried to take me away. It's a debt I can't see go unpaid."

Morgan could see no room for argument as he pulled the clothes from the bag and inspected them. In the modicum of modesty, Robyn turned her back as he changed into them. When she turned to face him at his brief 'ready' she could see his confusion still remained.

It was was that confusion that he voiced, "You still haven't told me why I need these clothes. What do you have planned?"

"Very soon they're coming to get you, I'm going to help you escape. Just behind this house there's a mail box. Underneath it there's a tunnel, it'll take you another tunnel that leads to Crazytown. You'll never reach the first tunnel without a diversion. I'm just that."

"But they could kill you!"

Robyn bent down and lifted the clothes Morgan had shed from the floor as she replied, "I know but that's a chance I have to take."


	31. Chapter 31

Rotor blades roared as three helicopters sped through the air above the mountains towards their intended location. They carried a pilot and four men, all heavily armed, all highly trained and ready for action. Their wake rocked the airship on the edge of their path and stirred the occupant within from his bed. He had been awake, lost in thoughts and trying to concentrate on something burgeoning in the world below, trouble on the very edge of his crystal's reckoning but beyond its power to notify him of what it was picking up. As they flew past him he leapt from his bed, running to the viewing deck and observing them through the lofty windows.

As Robyn heard the noise of the helicopters she knew her time was running out. They were here and she had to act. Morgan helped her on with his jacket, its material heavy but familiar. She could sense the men in the helicopters and their intention as they prepared themselves to exit their flying craft and storm the town in search of their quarry. Already the patrols had altered and tightened around the town as Boris and Langford came to greet the visitors.

With only seconds to spare before the men descended, Robyn turned to face Morgan. "You have to go now. I'll try and hold them off for as long as I can, don't worry about me or what might happen to me. Just worry about you and getting yourself out. One day, when everything has settled, we'll see each other again. I'll find you somehow."

Morgan started to walk towards the window, raising it so he could climb through but stopped short of doing so and quickly moved back to Robyn. His body language told her he didn't want to leave, that it still wasn't too late for him to face up to his crimes but she moved to push him away. He drew his lips back in a sullen smile, eyes heavy with an emotion she hadn't viewed in them before and gently lifted his hand to her cheek before pressing a kiss to her forehead. He found her arms around him as she held him tightly, not wanting to let him go but not having any choice if she didn't want to find her plans undone. She released him and he begrudgingly stepped away from her and climbed through the window towards his destiny.

She could hear the whine of the rotor blades alter as the helicopters began to sink to hover above the ground, low enough to allow their passengers to leave but high enough to remain in a state of flight as they disembarked in a pre planned pattern to seek out the man they sought. Shouts rang out as orders were barked by a central commander and residents were dragged from their homes. She could sense the Mayor and Bessie stirring from their beds at all the noise and could feel the men outside drawing closer.

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath she lifted the collar of the jacket and ran.

He reached the mail box as she had described it and pushed it aside easily as it revealed its hidden secret. Doubts raced through his mind as he gazed down at the gaping hole at his feet but when he heard the door to the Mayor's house fly open, slamming against the wall and the shouts ringing around the town escalate he knew he had to leave. Jumping down into the darkness with a silent prayer for his sister.

Weapons loaded they trained them on their target, ready to fire at the order of their leader as they saw the figure sprinting from the Mayor's house shouting out to confirm their sighting. He raised his hand, ordering them to hold their fire and with his other he gestured for one of his men to come close. Without hesitation they did so and he made his orders very clear.

"Non lethal, lower quadrant. I want him alive."

Nodding their understanding the Red Tide team member shouldered their weapon and took another from the holster on their back. Confirming with their leader that they had non lethal ammo in the form of a bean bag baton round they loaded the weapon and fired, aiming for the space of the target's back between their bottom and the base of their spine.

Sportacus was pulled down to ground level as he caught sight of the person running from their Mayor's house. He made to break from the men that had brought him from his airship but they held him fast as the projectile struck his niece and sent her flying as it knocked her off stride.

As soon as the projectile had struck its target the Red Tide team leader motioned for his men to move in, two of them went to turn over their target while the others kept their weapons ready to fire if needed. Every man moved back a few steps when their target was turned over and they realised what had happened.

Reaching up to his ear piece, the Red Tide team leader heard the words he had not wanted to hear.

"Sir, we have a problem."

He ignored the loud protests of those that lived in the town as he walked towards his fallen target. The target that was now being forced to stand up and was not a man but young woman, of the man's age and the one he had been warned about. He could hear the gasps of the townsfolk as they saw what his eyes had met with, he could feel the glare of the eyes looking at him as if they belonged to the woman his team was charged with finding. The two men holding her up looked at him as they awaited their orders, their companions instantly lowering their weapons.

Feeling rage at this deliberate and hauntingly successful sabotage attempt he swung his arm, the back of his hand connecting with Robyn's face so hard that she fell from the hands of the men holding her.

Every shred of confusion that had hung in his mind burned away the millisecond that the Red Tide team leader back handed his fiancé and Kit instantly made a move to retaliate and protect her, as did the other residents but he found himself restrained on the ground by Langford who muttered to him to remain still. Kit tried to struggle against Langford and found his hold to loosen only when the Red Tide leader extended his assault on Robyn.

Robyn felt herself being moved from the ground again, the team leader grabbing her and forcing her to her feet. His fingers dug into her chin as her legs refused to support her weight and he brought his face within millimetres of hers. She could feel his hot breath on her face as he snarled at her.

"Where is he?" He growled with no shortage of venom.

Despite the breathlessness she felt, Robyn was able to formulate a devastating response. "Somewhere you won't find him."

As he supported her entire weight on his one hand, his finger tips leaving bruises on her bloody chin he drew himself back. Her unwavering audacity fuelling his anger as he wanted nothing more but to beat an answer from her and make her pay for the trouble she had caused. It seemed his wish was one that was detectable amongst those gathered in town and the Russian accented tones of Boris, the Network division leader held his attention.

"You so much as raise your little finger to her, Olaf, and I will tell Langford to stop wasting his time holding Kit down and my men to ease off from stopping everyone else giving you exactly what you deserve."

Boris' threat forced Olaf to turn his head in the direction of the division leader and follow his pointing finger to the furious figure that Boris' deputy was hanging onto. Feeling movement against his gripping fingers he looked back to Robyn and found all of her defiance had been swept away, replaced by an unreadable expression.

"You have a team going to Lily's hide out in Crazytown." Robyn's statement made with an almost hypnotic quality.

Olaf nodded vacantly, oblivious to how she could hold that information.

"Get them out," Robyn's voice was little more than a whisper before she yelled, "Get them out _NOW_!"

Something in her countenance told Olaf that there was little room for argument and he instantly reached for his radio. "Red Tide Team Two respond! Red Tide Team Two respond!"

There was no answer as he tried to get hold of his team. He continued, alternating the frequency and repeating his orders. At first nothing but static greeted him by way of response until bursts of sound erupted from the radio, snippets of gun fire and screams, broken by more static. He frantically repeated his order one final time until he got a vocal answer in a sing song voice that sent shockwaves through the town, a voice that belonged to their ultimate target.

"I'm sorry. Red Tide Team Two can't come to the phone right now. Can I take a message?"


	32. Chapter 32

A small chuckle reverberated over the radio until the sing song voice became hard and cold, "I've taken the little presents you've sent me to the point of death, if I do nothing else to them they might well live or if I wish I can finish them off."

"How do I know if you're telling the truth? How do I know that they're not all dead already? What is your intention in doing this?" Olaf interrogated, trying to bolster his voice with a strength he didn't feel.

In answer to Olaf's first two questions he heard screams from his men as Lily seemed to be proving her point by striking them somehow, her efforts audible over the radio. He wasn't sure if this disturbed him more than the answer she gave him to his final question.

"I want to play a game."

Olaf tried to hold his nerve as he was confronted with the unheeded insanity of the woman he was talking to, "What kind of game?"

"I've called it 'Six little piggies all in a row. Who will live and who will go?' The rules are very simple and the only person that's allowed to play is dear little Robyn. It's up to her to decide who lives and who dies."

All eyes turned to a shaken Robyn as doubts sprung to their mind about why she would be chosen to be the only one involved. She looked as clueless as they did, unable to cogitate her part in Lily's new sick plan. As if Lily had heard their thoughts over the radio she explained the 'rules' of her game but it seemed only to Robyn.

"The lives of these little Network piggies are in your hands. It's up to you to use your gifts to save them. If you can correctly tell me what I'm doing, they'll live. Every time you make a mistake one will die."

Robyn took in a deep breath; she knew what she was being asked to do. "You can't make me do this."

Lily gave a brief snort which was followed by the agonised scream of one of the men that seemed to fade into a gurgling silence.

"One down, five more to go." Lily hissed, "You don't have a choice whether you do this or not. Use your senses. Do what I know you're capable of."

Crushed by the weight of an inescapable situation, Robyn closed her eyes. Tears escaped beneath her closed lids as she tried to concentrate, trying to focus her senses on her mother and the people around her. As she reached out she was able to feel the pain of the men fallen victim to her mother and it overtook her. Her back arched as her legs threatened to give way. Strong arms held her, stopping her from falling.

Lily's tone had turned to one of impatient boredom when her voice came over the radio again, "I'm waiting, Robyn."

She couldn't do it. She couldn't give her mother an answer.

A burst of pain ripped through her as another scream echoing that which they had heard before pierced the air around them, mingled with the exhalations of shock from those that witnessed it. Her body convulsed with the throbbing she felt throughout her body and soul.

Sportacus held Robyn tightly as she suffered under Lily's actions. He was powerless to help her or stop what was happening. Langford had released Kit who was trying to placate Trixie and Robbie while attempting to keep himself calm. Stephanie had buried her face in Pixel's neck, holding onto their daughter while Stingy had unconsciously wrapped his arms around Ziggy trying to gain comfort and give it at the same time. Bessie was crying silently as the Mayor was struggling to watch.

"You're not doing very well at this, Robyn. You can do better. You have the ability, use it! So far your powers have developed naturally but it's time your body caught up with what you can do outside of it. To make that happen you have to _force_ it."

The word 'force' was punctuated with the sickening squelching thud of someone being stabbed. Robyn cried out despite herself, unable to hold it in anymore. Over the radio they could almost hear Lily smile.

"You're feeling it, it's a step in the right direction but it's not enough. It's not nearly enough. You have to _see_ it!"

"Stop stabbing him! He's already dead!" Robyn shouted as she opened her eyes.

In the distance an alarm went off, the alarm installed in Pixel's house to notify him of surges in psychic energy associated with Robyn's ability. Ever the scientist he tapped a few buttons on his wrist gadget, instantly a holographic graph appeared showing a spike in energy levels around Robyn. Something had changed in her eyes, her pupils had constricted to the extent they almost disappeared, lost in her irises.

They heard Lily make a small 'hmm' sound, "So he is. I'm not sure if I can give you that one Robyn. Three down, three left. Let's move on to a bonus round. Raise the stakes a little. Tell me where I am, what I'm doing, get it right and I'll let them live. Get it wrong and they'll all die."

"You're standing between two of them." Robyn began, speaking as though in a trance, "You've got the knife in your right hand. You're walking around the living room, twirling the knife in your hand, heading towards the window. You're looking out of it at the garden; I think you might want to look behind you instead."

"Wh-" Lily's voice trailed off, replaced by a muffled thud and the sound of someone falling and hitting the ground, the radio capturing the sound of itself clattering to the floor. Footsteps sounded after it.

Still trembling perceptively, Robyn smiled through her tears. "Thank you Morgan."

There was a slight grunt before static replaced all sound coming from the radio.

Moving stiffly, Robyn turned and buried her face in Sportacus' chest. For now her ordeal was over.


	33. Chapter 33

As the studio lights went up, the audience roared with claps and cheers. Throwing their adoration at their host who crossed the stage, looking at his only two guests of the evening and perched atop his stool on the edge of it. In the bottom left hand corner of TV screens around the world the banner 'Jerry's final thought' whirled into view. As silence fell all around Jerry Springer cleared his throat and began to read what he had rehearsed from the autocue.

"Not knowing who one of your parents are is tough. What's tougher is living your life thinking that someone is your parent until something comes around that destroys that. What we mustn't forget is that it's not only hard for the child involved but the people that have given their lives up under the same illusion and raised them as their own. They are hurting too. With love and understanding these things can be overcome and when it comes to whether someone is the parent or not, genetics don't matter. Genetics play only a small role in the life of a parent; it's who the person is that counts. Take care of yourselves and each other."


End file.
